Harry Potter and the Slayer Dimension
by Apocalypse Thou
Summary: Thrown into a parallel dimension during the final battle with Voldemort Harry finds himself stranded in a world where Demons exist and the world is protected by a young girl; The Slayer. Will he be able to return home? Will he want to?
1. Through the Veil of Hellmouth

**Disclaimer:** _I own nothing but my computer and my car… I own none of the copyrights for BtVS, A:ts or HP._

**AN:** _Enter my second xover. Updates on this will much slower on this than HP&tAoR but they will come. I've wanted to post a second story for a while now and this one won. Hurrah. Hope you enjoy it._

_Please see my profile page was a poll on who the 'ship will be with. (To those who tell me "It's your story, do what you want", I want to do both but can't and as such would appreciate the input.)_

_P.S. Also xover with 'Angel'_

_P.P.S. Takes place during the early episodes of Buffy: Season 4_

**Harry Potter and the Slayer Dimension**

**Summary**: _Thrown into a parallel dimension during the final battle with Voldemort Harry finds himself stranded in a world where Demons exist and the world is protected by a young girl; The Slayer. Will he be able to return home? Will he want to? HP/????? (No Slash)_

**Read:** _This was already posted once and the formatting screwed up and wouldn't fix, hence my deleting of it. Lets try that again shall we…_

**Chapter 1 – Through the Veil of a Hellmouth**

_(Transcript taken from the prologue of: __**The Journal of Harry Potter**__)_

_My name is Harry Potter and I am a wizard. It sounds simple when said like that but it couldn't be further from the truth. I write the beginning of this journal on the day I know I'm to die. The fact itself, my death, is no surprise, I've been outrunning the Reaper since before I was even born. The only thing I didn't suspect was, without a doubt, that I'd know I was to die half a day before the event took place. It's an indescribable feeling._

_Know that the events written in this journal are not entirely the way they where when they happened. Memories were changed, reality altered any number of times and as such, the events are recorded as I remember them, not just how they happened._

_This will make sense to you soon._

OoOoOoOoO

_(Ministry of Magic – Saturday, October 7th, 2000)_

Multicolour lights lit up the large room. Hundreds of people ran, ducked, attacked, fell and died. No one stopped. Everyone fought. The large room was filled with people, one group dressed in black, the other in red. Neither side would give up, knowing they were most likely all fighting to the death. Only a large golden statue of a man, a woman, a centaur, a goblin and a house-elf separated the two groups. One member of the red group swiftly made his way onwards, avoiding the coloured lights that crashed around him, focused on his goal.

Harry Potter ducked and rolled underneath the blasting curse that a masked Death Eater aimed at his head. Snapping to his feet before the masked man could retaliate Harry responded in kind with a dark cutting curse, "_Caedes!_" He shouted, not even trying to hide his spell. He slashed his wand diagonally downward.

A shield shimmered in front of the black robed man, but the spell over powered his protection, removing some of the power behind it. It wasn't enough to save him. The shield fell and the sharp burst of magic cleaved the man in half from shoulder to shin. Harry didn't even spare the man a second though, ducking and spinning to left, "_Caelestis Aegis!_" A golden concave shield shimmed before him.

Three stunning spells crashed into his shield. Harry smiled at the spell's being used. The Death Eater's were under strict instructions not to kill Harry. Those that had tried previously whilst under direct orders were made examples of. They wouldn't try and Harry knew he was moderately safe for the time being, despite the magnitude of the situation.

Four stunners and two blasting curses hit the area where the stunners arrived from. Harry glanced towards the blood red robed fighters that had come to his defence. The Order of the Phoenix, a group created 30 years ago by the late Albus Dumbledore to deal with the rising threat of the Dark Lord Voldemort. They were his backup here and under strict instructions from Harry himself to clear his way.

With his left hand Harry summoned the wand of the Death Eater he had cut in half and placed it in a pocket on the side of his dragonhide trousers along with several more wands he'd picked up during the fight so far. He continued quickly onwards, keeping an eye out for errant spells that came near him. Blue, red, green, yellow, white and black lighted spells crashed around him as he kept low. He had his goal and the Order had theirs. The Order had to fight the Death Eater's and give Harry clear passage. Harry, well, he had to kill Voldemort

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." _

Those had been the words that had dictated Harry's life since before he was born. Those words had lost him his parents and those words now had him fighting for his life and the safety of the magical world. A prophecy, created by the granddaughter of a legendary seer had cost him everything.

Harry ducked a stunner, causing the red light to slam harmlessly against a wall behind him. With a brandishing wave of his wand Harry sent back three stunners in response, dropping what Harry assumed to be a rather new Death Eater; certainly not an Inner Circle member. He summoned the man's fallen wand, snapping it cleanly in half before throwing it back to the man. He continued onward along his path, ducking stray spells and avoiding those that nearer him. He had his mission and this wasn't it. He entered an empty corridor and made his way quickly forward.

He felt 4 people coming up quickly behind him at a slow run. Harry stepped to the side, twisting sharply, wand pointed at head height. A blasting curse was already on his lips before he saw his companions. They were all dressed in the standard deep red Order robes. He saw his best mate Ron Weasley at the head of the group. Through the shadowed hood Ron wore Harry saw him smile. Harry narrowed his eyes, "Do you want to keep in one piece Ron?" he asked as he lowered his wand slightly as they approached him at a walk.

Ron grinned at him, "I'm in more pieces than you are mate, I could probably spare a part or two."

"Your head?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ron still looked amused, "Well," Ron said, considering Harry's question. "'Mione always use to say I didn't use it. It might not slow me down much and who are we to argue with her logic."

Harry let out a laugh, pleased his mate was able to keep his sense of humour in a time like this, especially considering things that had happened in the past. They'd both had hard lives but they could still joke around with each other, even if it wasn't the appropriate time. He looked across at Ron's companions, "Remus, how were things in the Atrium?"

Remus, also under the cover of a charmed shadow hood rolled his eyes, "Had you not rushed a head you'd already know." His tone was reprimanding but Harry knew it was mostly said in jest. Remus was the adult in the group and despite the fact that he still acted young at times, tried to act the adult when situations called for it.

Harry narrowed his eye's again at the old werewolf and Remus continued, "There's still fighting in the Atrium but the main force is pushing them back. We have 3 people guarding this hallway." The sound of spell fire caught their attention. The iris of Harry's right eye switched from emerald green to a bright glowing neon blue, leaving the white of his eye as well as the dark black pupil unaltered. For a brief second as he looked towards the direction the noise came from.

"We've got to keep moving." Harry said quickly, his tone ensuring that no one argued with him. They five Order members turned back down the long corridor and began to jog, doing so as silently as they could. Silencing charms on their feet ensured that almost no noise was made. As they reached the corner that led to Ministry's main elevator, Harry's right eye glowed again. He picked up speed, as did the four Order members following behind him.

Harry burst round the corner and caught sight of the elevator as well as five Death Eater's standing guard. He died firing two stunners before the five even realised someone was there, dropping them before they could react. "_Avada Kedavra!_" Three separate voices cried. Harry threw himself sideways, avoiding one of the killing curses by inches. One Order member was not so lucky.

Harry dived into a roll, getting back onto his feet but keeping low. Slashing an X shaped pattern with his wand Harry mentally cast, "_Caedes! Caedes!_" The Death Eater blocked the first spell but the second spell, milliseconds behind the first cut him into two. Not losing focus Harry turned to the Death Eater that Ron was trading blows with. His mask had been removed and Harry recognised Alecto Carrow one of Voldemort's maddest and most dangerous followers. He hadn't been all that well known until his sister, Amycus had been killed by Remus. After that his reputation came close that of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Harry quickly fired upon Alecto. Whilst Ron could hold his own, Harry knew Alecto was better. Unfortunately for the Death Eater, Harry was better still. Seeing the lethal spells that Alecto fired at Ron Harry responded in kind, sending a blasting curse towards his legs. He shouted the curse, causing Alecto to turn. The spell was shielded but it gave Ron the opening he needed. A cutting curse to the neck ended Alecto's life.

Harry turned back to the fight just in time to see Remus stun the remaining Death Eater. "Thanks mate." Ron said from behind him. Harry looked over his shoulder and gave him a nod. "You three alright?" he asked his Order members. Whilst it may seem disrespectful not to acknowledge the fallen member of their team, there would be a chance to mourn their losses later.

"All in once piece." Remus said.

"Never better." Ron said.

Emmeline Vance rotated her shoulder a few times, "Bit of damage but nothing life threatening."

Harry nodded and summoned each wand from each Death Eater individually. He pocketed the wand of the Death Eater he had killed and offered the wand of Alecto Carrow to Ron. "You keep it mate. You're the one who collects them."

Harry snapped the wand and threw the pieces on Alecto's chest. He snapped the remaining wands. "You know I only keep the ones of those I kill Ron," Harry said evenly, having discussed this before.

Ron shrugged, "He was as good as yours."

Harry shook his head. Some people though that Harry collected the wands from the Death Eaters he killed as a trophy of his victories. Only those who knew him knew that he kept them to remember how many people's lives had ended at the tip of his wand. He would make sure to never forget what he had to do.

Harry summoned the masks off the Death Eater's, looking at the faces of each one. Aside from Alecto there was Yaxley as well. Harry was thankful that he'd stunned the other Inner Circle member before the fight broke out. He turned to Remus and Emmeline, "I need you to guard this lift. Ron and I are going on. Secure the ones that are stunned, Imperio them to fight for you, I don't care, just guard this lift."

"Harry…" Remus said, starting to protest. Ron moved over to the elevator, pushing the button that called for it.

"No Remus," Harry said, cutting him off. "We've got two Inner Circle members here. That means that there won't be many more on the way to the DoM. I need you to make sure no one can come up behind us."

Remus looked ready to protest, but he restrained himself, "Alright Harry, but be careful."

Harry grinned at the man, "When am I not?"

"You'll forgive me for not answering that?" Remus asked, amused by still obviously worried.

Harry grinned, "Buy me a pint and I'll forgive you."

Remus smiled at the fact that Harry saw himself coming out on top of the fight he was looking for and that had been what Harry had intended. "Oi, hurry it up" Ron called from behind him. Harry turned and saw that the elevator had arrived. Harry nodded towards him.

"Give them hell Harry," Remus told him.

The look on Harry's face promised just that, "It's what I do Remus." Harry held his hand out to Remus and they clasped them together. "See you soon." With that Harry turned and strode towards the open elevator. He turned back to Remus just as the doors closed. Remus gave him a short nod.

The doors shut and the elevator began to descent. "Who do you thinks waiting for us?" Ron asked.

Harry repaired a small cut on the chest of the robes that covered his dragonhide armour whilst he considered Ron's question. "I've not seen either Malfoy so far so odds are good we see one of them, probably both."

Ron grinned, "I'm looking forward to that. I've been looking forward to the end of the Malfoy line for years."

Harry chuckled, "I'm sure we can arrange that." He went quiet for a moment. "I'm guessing we see Rookwood as well, it was his department once upon a time after all."

"That all?" Ron asked, clearly still looking for a fight.

Harry nodded, "Voldemort wants me there Ron, I know he does. Those he set between here and there are only meant to weaken me, not kill me. There will be no more than four, I guarantee it."

"Is this another one of your hunches?" Ron asked, sceptically.

Harry sighed in Ron's direction. His friend could fight but he rarely listened and rarely absorbed information. "You know I've been dreaming about this for weeks. I know there will be four, I just don't know who."

Ron shook his head, "If you say so mate."

Harry cleaned off some soot from his robes and armour. Since he'd been able to finally close off the connection Voldemort had shared with him due to his curse scar he'd been having prophetic dreams of a sort. They were sporadic at best and rarely came in use until moments before the events actually happened, but they were still useful. For the last few weeks, during what little sleep he was able to get, he had been watching this fight in the Ministry. It had been mostly blurry, showing only enough detail to show Harry the fight taking place in the Ministry. The day before however he'd had a similar dream to those that he had during his 5th year when Voldemort constantly thought about the door that allowed those to enter the Department of Mysteries.

That dream had ended the moment they'd entered the Department of Mysteries, but he'd seen enough to know that four black cloaked figures guarded the door. Ron had never been a firm believer in divination of any sort, and therefore just decided that Harry was…

"Mental…" he heard Ron mutter to himself. He looked up at what floor the lift was one and knew they'd reach their destination momentarily. "Ready?" The grin on Ron's face was enough to ensure him of that. They both moved into position, moving just behind the walls of the elevator making sure they wouldn't be seen as the doors opened.

The lift stopped. A bell rang. "Department of Mysteries," a cool female voice rung out. Harry's right eye shone blue for a brief moment. He turned towards Ron and held up four fingers with a triumphant look. Ron scowled at him. Harry made a series of arm movements, not wanting to alert the Death Eaters at the very end of the long corridor to the fact that people were in the elevator. He'd wait for them to get closer first. Ron nodded to him in understanding.

Neither could see what was happening outside the elevator but the footsteps moving closer to them. Harry's eye shone again and he held up three fingers to Ron. He dropped one, then the other, then the other. As one they both stepped into view and called, "_Avada Kedavra!_"

Green light burst from their wands and two of the Death Eaters, one unmistakeable Rookwood, dropped to the ground. Harry summoned Rookwood's wand with his left hand and pocketed it quickly. Harry glanced towards Ron who was frowning slightly. Most Order members avoided using the three Unforgivable curses religiously, commenting that using them made them feel ill afterwards. Harry had never experienced this after-effect and it had been rationalised that his link with Voldemort stopped him from feeling the side effects. Ron was not use to it.

"Alright mate?" Harry asked quietly as they walked side by side toward the remaining two Death Eaters. Both hooded figures had their wands out but currently had them pointing downwards. They were almost 200 meters ahead and the corridor was extremely narrow. Firing a shot at that distance and getting a hit would be difficult. They needed this next duel to take place somewhere else.

"I'm just hoping one of these is a Malfoy," Ron muttered. The Death Eaters had yet to make a move. They stopped when they reached 30 meters away. All four of them stood, waiting silently.

The tallest Death Eater moved his left hand and reached towards his hood. Harry was ready to cast an unforgivable at the earliest moment. The long fingered hand pulled back the hood and Harry knew without a doubt who the first man was. His long platinum coloured hair was tucked into the robe but he was still unmistakeable. "Lucy?" Harry asked with a smile. "How are you?" He had a serious score to settle with this man.

Lucius Malfoy smirked at Harry, but he could see the anger at the butchery of his name. "Your little games won't work on me Potter," the man said. "You won't be alive long enough."

"Lucy, Lucy," Harry said patronisingly, tauntingly. "I'm afraid I'll be living far longer than you will."

"Are you so sure of that?" Lucius asked, his fingers tightening around his wand.

"Yes." Harry said, adjusting his wrist slightly.

"How's the eye Potter?" Lucius asked, his smirk increasing a notch.

Harry gritted his teeth but didn't comment. The remaining Death Eater laughed slightly. "Who's your friend Lucy?"

The second Death Eater removed his hood and Harry could practically hear the smirk on Ron's face. "Potter, Weaslebee." The younger Malfoy said with a sneer.

"Looks like we get to end the Malfoy family today after all." Ron said to himself but loud enough to travel. He sounded very eager. As Harry had a vendetta against Lucius, Ron had a similar one with Draco.

Harry looked over at Ron, completely ignoring Draco, "Did I not tell you?" Harry asked. "Did I not tell you they'd both be here with Rookwood and someone else?"

Ron looked over at Harry, ignoring Draco who had gone a little red due to being seen as nothing, "Yes, you did." Ron said reluctantly. As Harry's expectant look Ron rolled his eyes, "Fine, your stupid dream was real. Still doesn't explain the other one you keep talking about though."

Harry smirked at his win, even though the other dream Ron had mentioned was still a mystery to him. He'd been having the same dream, in between nightmares for over a year and had no idea what it meant. He turned back to the Malfoy's. He feigned surprise at seeing them, "Draco? I didn't see you there! Sorry." Malfoy turned slightly more red, which only pinked his pale skin. Harry could see the young Malfoy had clenched his teeth hard. He felt somewhat bad for Draco. The idiot was 20 years old now and still acted as though he was 11.

"You're going to die today Potter!" Draco spat menacingly. Well, Draco must have thought it was at any rate.

Harry turned to Lucius again, still ignoring Draco. It was something of a sport, fun for both participants and spectators. It had the added bonus of angering them to such a point that they'd do something stupid. "Lucy, I didn't know it was 'bring your daughter to work day'. You should have said something." Lucius narrowed his eyes.

"Still hiding behind your daddy Malfoy?" Ron asked with a smirk.

Draco raised his wand but Lucius placed his hand on his son's arm, stopping him, "Now, now Draco," Lucius said silkily. "Our Lord has requested Potter alive and we can't afford him stepping in front of your curse to save his pathetic friend."

"Have something in mind Lucy?" Harry asked as though they were discussing where to go on a night out.

Lucius waved his wand-free hand towards the door behind him, the one that led into the door room of the Department of Mysteries. "I propose we enter a slightly larger space before we kill your friend Potter."

Harry smiled pleasantly at Lucius, glad for the suggestion. He nodded, "Excellent idea Lucius. After you."

Lucius nodded towards his son and Draco opened the door. Lucius took a few steps backwards, entering the room but never taking his eyes off of Harry. Draco followed behind him. Harry glanced at Ron and received a nod in return. He walked forwards, summoning a second wand into his left hand as he did. Harry walked into the large black round room. Lucius stood at what would be the northern point of the room from Harry, with Draco at the eastern point. Harry moved over to the west and Ron stood just by the entrance, shutting the door behind him.

Immediately the wall began to spin causing Harry to lose track of which door they'd entered in, just like what happened last time he'd been here when he was 15. They stood in silence as the room worked its magic. After 20 seconds it came to a slow halt.

Harry faced Lucius as Ron turned towards Draco. "Shall we bow?" Harry idly.

Malfoy responded just as Harry predicted, "_Crucio!_" he shouted, followed by a similar cry from his son.

"_Avis Congestus!_" Harry shouted in return. A swarm of dark coloured vicious looking birds burst from his wand, the leader of them taking the curse whilst the other six descended on Malfoy. Harry quickly followed up by aiming several destructive curses at the elder Malfoy's feet.

Malfoy fired a wide area cutting curse towards the sky as he leapt backwards to avoiding the explosive spells . Feathers rained down upon him. "_Aequa Frons!_" Harry shouted as Lucius was distracted. Harry flicked his wand upward.

"_Adflictatio!_" Malfoy returned with. Harry dropped to one knee to avoid the pain curse.

"_Depulso! Confringo! Depulso!_" Harry shouted back, using both wands. Lucius blocked the first two curses but the third hit him in the left shoulder, throwing him backwards in a spin. Harry didn't give the man a chance to stand again, "_Defodio!_" The spell was aimed for the elder Malfoy's face but he managed to roll to the side in order to avoid it. Harry muttered several spells, transfiguring the rubble around Lucius into a pair of panthers. With a slight compulsion charm they leapt at Lucius.

"_Sectumsempra! Sectumsempra! Reducto!"_ Malfoy called out with. The transfigured animals caught the first curse and dropped hard to the ground. Harry immediately conjured a wall of steel to intercept the second curse. The conjured wall took the brunt of the attack but a small amount of the spell cut through, hitting Harry's left arm, cutting through the dragonhide drawing blood. The blasting curse struck him in the chest, throwing him back several feet. Thankfully the armour reduced the effectiveness of the spell.

Lucius jabbed his wand towards Harry before he time to react. Knowing Lucius would get a serious hit on him he prepared himself. "_Reducto!_"

Thankfully for Harry the spell didn't come from Lucius. Lucius dropped to the ground as the spell struck him giving Harry a chance to get to his feet. He looked over at the battle with Ron and Draco and saw Ron give him a nod. Incidents like that were the reason he would always fight with Ron at his back, despite his best friend not being the best fighter in the Order.

"_Caedes!_" Harry shouted getting back into his fight. Lucius, who had regained his footing, shielded the attack with practiced ease. His left arm hung limply by his side.

"_Crucio! Crucio!_" Malfoy shouted back. Harry barely avoided the spells, throwing himself backwards to the ground in order to do so.

"_Expulso!_" Harry shouted out several times. Malfoy shielded the attack but Harry could see him weakening quickly. They both knew who was about to win. "_Avada Kedavra!_" They both shouted in unison. Unfortunately for Lucius Harry had had cast a second spell with the wand in his left hand, "_Avis!_"

Harry's killing curse struck Malfoy in the chest whilst Harry's flock of birds intercepted the curse, reducing them to feathers. Lucius fell to the ground, dead. Harry smiled slightly, he knew he would win. His wand wouldn't let him lose. He summoned the black wand from Malfoy's grip. Feeling the power of the wand in his hand and smiled again. Whilst it was nothing compared to the wand in his right, it was the second most powerful wand in his possession.

Harry turned towards Ron and Draco who were still fighting tooth and nail. Both were near even in fighting skill but Harry could see that Ron, despite a heavily bleeding cut on his left arm and cheek, he was pushing Draco back. Harry stood aside, letting Ron fight his own battle. Ron would be pissed if he interfered and one did not anger a Weasley.

With the wand in his right hand Harry healed the damage done to his arm. He traced his wand along the gash, slowing closing it. Whilst healing wasn't a speciality of his he was fairly skilled at battlefield medical magic to heal most wounds that simulated damage done with a blade or blunt object. The 'Sectumsempra' spell was technically far more difficult to heal than most, but focused intent and the wand in his hand made easy work of it. He held his wand to his chest, doing what he could to limit the pain through his armour.

Harry didn't even look up as he heard a body hit the ground. He could sense that Ron was the one still standing, "Have fun?" he asked, now repairing his armour.

"Was come and go for a second but nothing I couldn't handle." Ron said.

Harry looked up, pleased with his repair work on his left arm; there was only a small scar left. "Thanks for the help back there," Harry said to him. Whilst Ron was usually looked down by the wizarding world due to not being that powerful or that intelligent, there was no one Harry trusted more at his back than he did Ron. Ron nodded at the thanks "How's the shoulder?"

"Shouldn't you, you know, go find Voldemort now?" Ron said, conjuring a bandage for his arm.

Harry looked at Ron's left hand in which he recognised Draco's wand. He looked at Ron in amusement and raised an eyebrow.

Ron smiled sheepishly, "This one I'm keeping." Harry chuckled darkly, not all that surprised. "You ready?" Ron asked, his smile turning serious.

Harry nodded, "It's going to end tonight and I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Kick his arse mate." Ron said, holding out his hand in a similar way that Harry and Remus had done. Harry clasped his hand and they pulled each other into a one armed hug. They parted.

"Fall back to Remus. One way or another, you'll know how this ends soon." Ron nodded and turned. The door they had entered opened, showing the way out. "Ron," Harry called. His friend stopped and turned back. "You've been a good friend." Ron only nodded and turned back. They both knew that it was very likely that Harry was going to die soon.

Ron exited the disk room. The door shut and the walls rotated. When they stopped Harry spoke aloud, mentally commanding the room to show him which way to go, "Show me to Hell."

A door to his north-east opened and Harry walked through. He immediately caught sight of Voldemort in the very centre of the room, drawing patterns in the air with his wand, directed towards the large object before him. He knew Voldemort had sensed him enter but he still hadn't looked up.

Harry took a moment to look at the object Voldemort was trying to activate. He'd seen it once before, but seeing it again was still somewhat painful for him. The 'Veil' that Sirius had fallen through, the one that the Ministry had used to execute prisoners many years ago stood before him. He could hear the voices talking to him as they had before, calling him.

His godfather, Sirius Black had fallen through the Veil almost four years ago and was never seen or heard from again. After it happened Harry had asked Dumbledore what the Veil was and why no one was seen again. The old Headmaster had informed Harry that he didn't know. His trust in Dumbledore damage from hiding the Trelawney Prophecy for so long, Harry hadn't believed him for a moment and a year of research, including trading letters with an Unspeakable finally got Harry answers. It had been when he got them that he understood why Dumbledore had tried to protect him from the truth. He hadn't wanted to know.

The Veil as Harry and his friends had taken to calling it had another name; Bucca ab Abyssu. The name translated into English easily enough and it had left Harry feeling cold. Bucca ab Abyssu meant Mouth of Hell, or more commonly referred to as a Hellmouth. The Veil was a one way ticket to the underworld.

Despite being horrified at finding out where Sirius had been sent Harry continued researching. Finding information on the Hellmouth had been far easier than the Veil, despite the lack of it. He quickly found that over the world there existed seven Hellmouths, located in California, Ohio, Egypt, Rome, Moscow, Sydney and of course, England. A war had been fought many thousands of years ago, the exact times lost to history, where wizards fought against demons for control of the earth. Slowly, the magic users had pushed the demons back, creating the Veil's around the central Hellmouth spots. A near infinite amount of protection spells had been cast, making sure that nothing could ever come through the Hellmouths again.

Unable to seal each Hellmouth completely the Veil was placed over it, allowing objects and beings to pass through, but never come back. There were seven Veils across the earth and each country had a major magical building placed on top of it, guarding it. Researching it had been the first real job of the Unspeakables.

Harry took a few steps forward, noticing said Unspeakables dead around him. They didn't seem to have put up much of a fight. At Harry's approach Voldemort turned to face him, "Harry Potter," he said, his voice high and cold. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't show."

"I wouldn't want to disappoint you Voldemort." Harry said, adjusting his wrists, both wands prepared.

Voldemort sneered at him, "No, you Gryffindor types never do." He looked around behind Harry, "You didn't think to bring any of your friends to die with you Potter?"

"Shall we just finish this now?" Harry asked, swivelling his left foot backwards and moving into a duelling stance. Voldemort laughed.

"I will have time for you momentarily Harry." Voldemort said, turning back towards the Veil. Harry now noticed that 5 runes were glowing near the top of the black stone structure. Harry suddenly had a very bad feeling. The Order had known that Voldemort had some plan for the England Hellmouth but not what. It seemed that he was trying to open it. From the glowing runes atop it, it also seemed as though he knew how and was rather close to succeeding.

"You're opening the Hellmouth?" Harry asked aghast, knowing that he had to beat Voldemort now. If he opened the Hellmouth, well, all hell would break lose.

Voldemort chuckled, "A legion of demons would serve me far better than my Death Eaters would."

"You expect demons to obey you?" Harry asked, not quite believing it. He knew Voldemort was insane, his soul ruined and destroyed by the dark magic he had used, but this reached a whole new level. Harry honestly expected better from the… man.

"I am Lord Voldemort and they will obey me!" Voldemort snarled, his crimson eyes seemingly trying to burn Harry out from the inside.

"What the hell did you want me here for then?" Harry asked, slowly moving to a better vantage point. "You know me, I always screw up your plans!"

Voldemort chuckled, "It was not you I needed Harry but that wand in your right hand."

Harry stopped. "You need it why?" he asked.

"An Unspeakable informed me, after a great deal of torture, that your wand was the one to close these portals and as such, the only wand that can open them again."

Harry glanced down at the wand in his hand.

The Elder Wand, taken from the cold dead hands of the man who murdered Albus Dumbledore, the man who had once been the master of the ultimate, unbeatable, legendary wand. Harry's grip around it tightened. He had been using the wand for a little over a year now and knew just how much power it held.

Information on the wand was scarce, its identity only appearing several times through recorded history under several names. 'The Wand of Destiny' and 'The Death Stick' were the most common. The age of the wand was completely unknown and there were rumours of it being used as far back as the times of Ancient Egypt, 5000 years ago.

Rumoured to have been created by Death himself, the wand was indestructible and most users of the wand had been murdered in their sleep so that the murderer could win the wand's allegiance. Harry was not letting Voldemort touch this wand.

"_Caeles Vertex!_" Harry shouted, trusting both wands forward towards Voldemort. A blinding vortex shot from both Harry's wand. Time for talking was over, Voldemort needed to die now.

Acting so fast it bordered on precognition Voldemort slashed his wand upward, dissipating the spell before it struck him. "You think you can stop me?!" Voldemort snarled.

"_Abrumpo Aboleo!_" Harry countered, beginning to fire spells as fast as he could. Any one of them would kill Voldemort should they touch him. Voldemort shielded the destructive spells and began firing them back in equal force. Back and forth they traded spells, neither getting the upper hand on each other. Whilst Voldemort was for all intent and purposes stronger than Harry, Harry's wand was special.

They fought with equal intensity, using spells that would cause the most damage. Voldemort wasn't playing with Harry this time, but fighting for his life and taking it seriously. Harry knew that Voldemort wouldn't mock him and wouldn't play with him today.

"_Oceanus Clades!_" Harry shouted, sending a torrent of water towards Voldemort. A clear blue light burst from Voldemort's wand in retaliation, freezing the water from Harry's wand before it reached him. Harry kept up the spell, pushing with as much force as he could. A spell from Voldemort struck him in the chest and Harry was pushed back several feet, his concentration slipping and his spell stopping.

"You wish to play with elements Potter?" Voldemort snarled. Without verbalisation a stream of fire burst from his wand heading towards Harry. He ducked it and the spell struck the door he had entered from. He knew what that spell was and he knew the end was near now.

Fiendfyre.

The spell whilst not particularly difficult to cast was damn near impossible to control. Most magic users having being recorded casting the spell died shortly afterwards, consumed by their own demonic flames. Harry saw the spell begin its work, saw the creatures of fire rise up and begin to consume the room, slowly working towards him. If he didn't end this soon the fire would be too out of control to stop.

He began firing spells against Voldemort again, keeping careful watch over the flames that were slowing expanding and circling him. Voldemort was unrelenting, seeming not bothered about the large creatures of fire approaching him. They were now trapped in a ring of fire that was slowly closing in on them. Harry was certain he'd won now. Of course, he would burn to death, but as long as Voldemort died and the Hellmouth stayed closed, nothing else mattered.

Harry began firing a repeating spell trying to push Voldemort backwards with the sheer power and force. Voldemort switched to defensive spells, reflecting Harry's back at him when he could. Harry didn't give up, firing back harder and faster. He was beginning to get dizzy. With the magic being used and the lack of air that now resided in the room, this fight was about to end.

Voldemort struck Harry in the arm causing him to drop his left wand. With an unarticulated cry Harry fired a spell with as much force as he could. "_DEPULSO!_" He dropped to his knees and his wand buckled at the force of the spell. Voldemort cast a solid silver shield but the banishing spell past through it, a gong sound echoing around the room as the shield fell. Voldemort was thrown backwards, dropping his wand as he went, vanishing into the demonic fires behind him. Harry heard a scream that last for only a moment before it died down. Harry knew Voldemort was dead.

He looked around the room and knew that he was dead as well. He summoned Voldemort's wand, wanting to have it in his grasp before he died. He returned Lucius' wand to his hand as well. Knowing he needed the Order to know he focused his remained strength into a Patronus messaging spell and sent it towards Ron, "Voldemort has fallen and so have I." The blinding white spell flew from his wand taking the shape of a stag, and leaving the room. He dropped to his knees, exhausted.

He pushed himself up and backed away from the fire that was slowly approaching him. With a look behind him he saw the Veil, inches away. It now left him a choice, stand where he was and be burnt to Death by Voldemort's spell, or step backwards through the Veil, into Hell itself. The fire neared him and Harry could feel the skin not protected by armour begin to blister.

His decision was quickly made. He wasn't going to stand here. No, that meant giving up. That would mean that Voldemort's spell had killed him and he wasn't going to have that! The added knowledge that he knew he was going to spend the rest of eternity in Hell for what he'd been forced to do in this war, Harry took a deep breath stepped backwards, through the phantom curtain of the Veil, vanishing, not noticing the wand in his right hand glow a glorious white as several runes activated on the stone body of the Veil.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**AN**:_Good? Bad? Ugly? Let me know._

_Next Chapter:_** Veiled Arrival**


	2. Veiled Arrival

**AN:** _Second chapter and the introduction to some new characters. Hopefully I've written them well. Let me know what you think. Reviews are always appreciated, even if I don't respond to all of them._

_Oh, and I almost forgot, a thanks to my new beta __**Agramahad**__._

_Enjoy_

**Chapter 2 – Veiled Arrival**

_(Saturday, October 7th, 2000)_

Harry groaned as he regained consciousness. He clenched his eyes shut and willed the pain to stop. He wasn't surprised when it didn't; that never worked. He opened his eyes slowly, expecting to see the white ceiling of the Hogwarts hospital wing overhead, a familiar sight for him. His eyes focused slowly and he was surprised to see, instead of a white ceiling, the night sky. A half moon looked down upon him, the same moon that he knew should be there.

Having a werewolf for a friend was great for keeping you up-to-date with the lunar calendar.

His mind caught up with what had just happened and he sat up quickly. It did nothing to help his headache. He groaned again and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes. Without opening them again he wandlessly summoned a small glass object, smaller than a marble, from a pouch he wore round his waist. With only a thought the glass ball expanded into a vial with a thick reddish potion inside. Harry flicked the cork off with his thumb and downed the contents. Whilst his wandless magic was barely existent, even the minor things helped.

The effect was almost immediate and his headache faded quickly. With a clear head he took a look at his surroundings. He groaned again, only this time it wasn't due to the pain. He was in a graveyard. He hated graveyards. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around, pulling his hood down. From what he could tell, this, whilst an unpleasant place to wake up in, was not the Hell he expected. He looked at the stars in the sky and recognised several constellations. He was still alive then. Where he was though, he had no idea.

Confused as to what was happening he held his wand at the ready and scanned the area around him, the last time he ended up in a graveyard due to unforeseen events was not a pleasant experience. Seeing a friend die in front of you and being forced to participate in the resurrection of the monster that destroyed your family, whilst not a happy memory, it did force him to be cautious when waking up in unknown situations. Carefully he began to walk forwards, pulling his hood up, concealing his face again. He walked silently, keeping to the shadows. From his left he heard the sound of fighting. Whilst no spells were being used this was the first sign that anyone other than himself was here.

He approached the noise carefully. Remaining hidden as he watched what was happening. He stared at the scene oddly for a moment, trying to work out if he was hallucinating or not. Half a minute passed by before he decided that his mind was in fact working fine. His right eye shone blue for a few moments and his eyes widened. He felt himself becoming dizzy. The glow faded and Harry took a deep breath.

Focusing on just the event in front of him, his right iris began to glow again. With his eye sensing the aura's that surrounded the fighters he had some idea what was happening.

A group of four vampires were fighting one short blonde girl. Whilst this wasn't an altogether uncommon situation, the differences were a little startling. The four were obviously vampires, but they looked like no vampire he had ever seen before. Their aura's were a dark blood red as apposed to the normal red that he'd previously seen. Furthermore, their faces, all similar, were vicious, demon-like if Harry had to describe them. He caught sight of their pronounced sharp features and yellow eyes. They looked nothing like the vampires he'd seen before but they were inarguably vampires.

He didn't like vampires. Or to be more accurate, they didn't like him. Hate would be a better word to use.

The girl was the most confusing part of the whole scenario. Harry could tell at just a glance that she had no magic within her, but she gave off a bright golden glow the likes of which he had never seen before. She was fighting hand-to-hand with the vampires and seemed to be doing extremely well. Given that vampires had superior strength and reflexes and the short blonde girl was fighting better than them, this said something was very different with her. She was cute as well. He watched in surprise as she stabbed the closest one in the chest with a wooden stake; apparently she had done this before.

His predicament of where he was and what happened to him was forgotten for a moment as he watched the girl fight. He leaned against the large headstone next to him and pulled out a cigarette from another pouch on his belt. With a snap of his fingers a small green flame appeared between his thumb and forefinger. He lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply, continuing to watch.

She staked another vampire, quickly ducking under an attack from one of the others. Harry took another drag of the cigarette in his hands. He'd started smoking after his 5th year, nicking the fags from Dudley's room. They relaxed him quickly and he was now addicted despite Hermione's ever persistent nagging. That summer had been his rebellious one. The girl dusted another vampire, leaving only one more.

Harry noticed that all the vampires seemed to have a rather advanced understanding of martial arts as did the blonde girl. He'd been trained as well, just in case he was ever disarmed. Despite not having that much physical strength, he was far faster than most and that, alongside the training he had, gave him an edge.

"You really think you could take me on with just four vamps?" The blonde girl asked mockingly. Harry smiled slightly; most people didn't appreciate the art of a good taunt. It was a good method for unnerving your enemy and angering them into making a mistake.

"No Slayer," the vampire replied. Harry could hear the creatures grin. "We didn't." From the shadows behind the vampire six more appeared. Harry's eye shone again, showing the same dark blood red aura on the newcomers. He was annoyed at having missed them before.

Harry caught the look on the girls face and saw the trace amounts of fear. She fought well but she was just one person, one very small person, and had taken a few hits during her fight. She looked around at each vampire and quickly turned away from them. She ran perhaps two steps before she noticed Harry. She looked at him closely for a moment and Harry could see the look of fear on her face intensify. She looked between Harry and the vampires before turning to face the creatures of the night.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, 'Chosen One' and Freshman student at UCLA was not having a good night. After another hellish day at college, where she was having a difficult time adjusting, listened to her annoying roommate Kathy playing a Celine Dion CD on repeat for hours, whilst out on patrol she had bumped into four vamps that seemed to have been waiting for her.

She took out her frustrations on them, keeping the tauntage to a minimum, settling on just kicking their asses. By the time she had dusted the third vamp she was beginning to get into the swing of things. "You really think you could take me on with just four vamps?" she asked the remaining vampire, twirling the stake in her hand.

The vampire grinned at her, "No Slayer. We didn't."

It was then she noticed the six extra vamps close in behind the remaining one and spread out around her. Her eyes widened slightly. This wasn't good. She had already taken down three vampires and fighting seven more would only make her bad day worse. Relying on Slayer rule number one – Don't die, she turned to run.

She'd only taken two steps before she stopped. Standing where she'd intended to run was, well, she didn't know who or what it was. It wore a red robe with a hood completely covering its face. The robe sat over some weird looking armour. Whoever the person or demon was leant casually against a headstone smoking a cigarette, watching her. Her Slayer-sense told her very quickly that this wasn't someone she wanted to fight. With just a look she could tell it was powerful.

Given the fact that it looked as though it'd just fought its way out of Hell itself, Buffy guessed fighting it was a bad idea.

How annoying! She'd defeated the Sunnydale Mayor/Pure demon thing a few months ago and had hoped for a bit more time before any other Big Bad turned up trying to mess with the Hellmouth, or make a name for themselves by taking down a Slayer. Evaluating her options and realising she had nowhere to run now she decided that her options would be better fighting through the Vamps than the creature in the red robes.

Buffy turned quickly, spinning on her left foot and kicking the nearest vampire hard in the head, dropping him to the ground. The other vampires moved in quickly now the fight had begun again. She managed to stake one quickly, but it got her a punch in the head from another. She blocked his second punch and started to pummel him.

It fought back as did the others. She was beginning to worry now; she had nowhere to go and was frightfully overwhelmed. She kicked out again knocking one vampire into another. Not exactly being team players, the vampire kicked the one thrown at it back towards Buffy. It caught her by surprise and sent her tumbling to the ground, the vampire on top of her.

He bared his fangs and Buffy tried to push him off, but the other vampires were all ready on her. Without much leverage her struggles had very little effect. The vampire on top of her lent down, ready to bite her exposed neck…

**OoOoOoOoO**

Harry watched as the girl turned away from him in surprise before realising that she probably saw him as a threat as well. It was a fair assumption Harry reasoned; he wouldn't want to fight himself. Why she thought he was more of a threat than the seven vampires, he didn't know, but he'd let her do what she wanted as he tried to piece together what was happening.

She fought them hard but was clearly overwhelmed. He watched as one vampire kicked another on top of her, sending her to the ground. He saw the vampire on her open his mouth wide, going for the kill. Deciding his intervention was now needed he quickly tapped his wand to his throat, cast a sonorous charm. Putting two fingers in his mouth and whistled thrice sharply. The vampires stopped completely at the noise, grabbing their ears. Harry wasn't surprised, the whistle would no doubt have been heard for miles around and vampires had really good hearing. Subtle was never his thing.

He walked towards the vampires casually. He looked down at the blonde lying on the ground and found her looking back at him, "Hey, blonde girl, you need some help?"

"You _want_ to help me?" she asked, solidifying his theory that she'd seen him as a threat.

"Who are you?" The closest vampire to Harry snarled. Harry ignored him.

"Sure," he said to the blonde girl who had thrown off the vampire and had now moved backwards, standing in a fighting stance with a stake in her hand, "If you want it."

"What do you think you could do, mortal?" the lead vampire asked again.

Harry glared at the vampire who looked nervous for just a moment. Harry had no patience for vampires. Due to a slight and accidental error that had happened two years ago resulting in the death of a major European Vampire Clans leader, his name was well known. Despite the fact that the Vampires never joined either side of the war, there was a huge price on his head.

The vampire that had spoken to him lunged forward. "_Incendio!_" Harry cast, jabbing his wand towards the creature. A ball of fire burst from his wand, reducing the vampire to dust in seconds. Small Blonde Girl and the vampires stared at the scene in shock. He brandished his wand again, slashing it left in a wide arch, "_Censum Flagello!_" A whip of fire burst from the end of his wand, quickly increasing in length. It cut through the remaining vampires as though they'd never been there.

Satisfied that the threat was eliminated Harry holstered his wand on his right thigh and threw his cigarette to the ground. He turned towards the gaping blonde and pulled his hood back, "Are you alright?" Harry asked. His right hand rested by his side. Should she make any sudden movement, she'd soon wish she hadn't.

She seemed to realise he was still there and her posture changed back into a fighting stance; kick boxing if Harry were to guess, "What are you?" the blonde girl asked.

Harry smiled slightly at the question, even if it was a little rude. He was still trying to work out what this girl was. She had no magic but hadn't been all that surprised by its use, meaning she had prior knowledge. She also wasn't a squib, their auras being noticeable. Her golden aura still confused him as did the location he was in. He perched himself on a tombstone beside him. "I'm Harry."

"What's a 'Harry'?" she asked, confused.

Harry laughed aloud this time and pointed at his chest, "My _name_ is Harry."

"Oh," the blonde girl said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Right."

"What am I?" Harry asked with a smile that verged on predatory. "I'm just Harry."

"Well, 'Harry', what are you doing here?" she asked again, still waiting for a reply and expecting a fight.

"You can relax Blonde Girl, I'm not going to attack you." Harry said easily, again ignoring her question.

"You think I'll just take your word for that?" she asked, still not trusting him. "And don't call me 'Blonde Girl!"

Harry shrugged with a slight smile, "You saw what I did to those vampires. Even if you did want to hurt me, you'd never get close."

"Really, you think I couldn't?" she asked, taking what he'd said as a challenge.

"No one ever listens to me," Harry muttered to himself. "No and I'd advise you not to try. I'm not here to do any harm."

Her look of disbelief was plain on her face, "Those dusty piles behind me don't do much to prove you weren't looking for a fight."

Harry shrugged, "They were about to kill you and I felt somewhat guilty about blocking your escape route."

She looked uncomfortable, "I-I had it all under control. They weren't going to kill me."

Harry raised and eyebrow, "Really?" he asked, not believing a word of it.

"Yeah," she said, looking as though she was trying to convince herself. Admittedly, the look on her face was very cute. "Yeah, it was part of my battle strategy."

"Of course," Harry said, not trying to hide his disbelief. "And after they bit you and drained you of your blood, what, exactly, was your plan?"

"I-I was luring them into a false sense of security," The blonde girl said her fighting stance relaxed somewhat as her embarrassment increased.

Harry laughed aloud, he liked this girl. He didn't know why. "Right, right, that all makes sense now." His bad mood was quickly improving with this odd girl's presence. "You mind me asking a few questions now?"

"You've barely answered my questions," Short Blonde Girl pointed out with a frown.

Harry nodded, "True. Odd question, but where are we?"

The blonde girl looked at him in confusion, "Restfield Cemetery."

Harry nodded, "And if I were to ask you to broaden that area somewhat?"

She titled her head slightly, looking at him as though he was mad. "Sunnydale," she finally said as if talking to a five year old.

Harry nodded again, "Broader?"

"You're serious?" she asked, looking well and truly surprised now. "You really don't know where you are?"

"From your accent, America, but other than that, no, not a clue," Harry said.

"Uh, you're in California," blonde girl said.

Harry thought about that for a moment. He knew where California was. His eyes widened slightly, realising where he had to be. He had to be near a Hellmouth Veil. 'Well, that sort of makes sense,' Harry thought to himself. 'I fell into a semi-active Hellmouth and fell out through another.' "Oh, okay, makes sense." Harry told the blonde girl.

'Odd,' Harry thought though. 'In all my studies of the Veil I've never heard of a town called Sunnydale. There should be a desert with the Californian Magic Government.'

"Right," she said. "Makes perfect sense now." Her tone was sarcastic and she was clearly looking for more information.

Having no desire to give anymore to an unknown, albeit cute, girl, Harry stood up from the headstone he was using as a chair. The blonde girl took a step backwards and tensed again. Harry rolled his eyes, "I thought we discussed me not attacking you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, well, you've still not given me any reason to trust you." She pointed out.

Harry nodded, "Again, true." Planning his next actions Harry realised he didn't have enough magic available to him to Apparate or Portkey home in his current state. Not without slipping into a week long coma anyway. He'd have to wait a few hours for that and he was extremely tired.

"Is there a cheap hotel anywhere near here?" Harry asked using a slight touch of legilimancy to urge her to answer his question and not ask anymore. It was something he hated doing but he knew he'd be unconscious in at least 20 minutes and he wanted to find someplace safe to rest.

She looked surprised by the question, "Uh, well, there's the Downtowner Motel just a few blocks from here in that direction." She pointed to the west.

Harry looked towards the town and nodded, pleased his mental suggestion had worked. "Well, thanks for the help," Harry said before turning and walking away. He'd try work out what other madness he'd stumbled onto after a few hours sleep.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Buffy Summers stared oddly at where 'Harry' had just been. She thought about following him for a brief moment before disregarding the idea. He'd said he didn't mean her any harm, and so far he hadn't done anything against her. Following him, or asking questions he didn't want to answer, may just make him change his mind. She didn't want that.

Buffy was confused and that wasn't something she liked. A confused Buffy was an unhappy Buffy. She replayed the events of what just happened in her mind. She'd found one vampire, it had ran upon seeing her, she'd then met three more who were waiting for her. She thought about where the red robed man fit in. She was sure he hadn't been there at the start of the fight so that meant he turned up whilst she was fighting.

It was possible he had just hidden until the fight started though. She frowned. He'd saved her from the fight, asking politely, clearly not phased by the vampires. His accent sounded English. The easiness of how he defeated the vampires left her in awe. She'd heard him shout something about 'jello' and suddenly he had a whip of fire. The more she thought about it the more she wanted one, it would certainly be handy and more fun than a crossbow.

When he'd removed his hood she hadn't known what to expect. The first thing she'd noticed had been his gorgeous green eyes. She quickly decided that eyes like that shouldn't be legal. She could have stared into them for hours. The scar across his right eye had been next. It cut across his face in such a way that she was surprised to see both his eyes still worked. The scar was dark black and as far as she could see, whatever had cut him had missed his eye by maybe less than a millimetre. His hair was short and jet black, looking as though it was styled specifically to be messy. Despite the situation she couldn't help but find him gorgeous. He had that powerful dark avenger look that had first attracted her to Angel.

She'd noticed his clothing next as any girl would. He was fully clad in some dark golden leather outfit that looked somewhat scaly. A strange dark red robe sat over it.

Asserting herself quickly, stepping back into 'slay' mode, she'd asked him questions and received nothing but a name and a slight feeling of embarrassment.

He'd asked where they were and the situation got even more confusing. Usually anyone with supernatural powers knew that they were near the Hellmouth. This guy apparently didn't even know which country he was in. Before she could ask more questions he'd asked for the location of a hotel. Feeling oddly compelled to answer him she'd pointed him to the nearest one, the same one Faith had stayed at before going crazy earlier in the year. She'd then just let him walk away without asking more. Only now did she think how odd that was.

Quickly she decided she needed to pass this information onto Giles, her former Watcher. Deciding that it could wait until morning she walked back to her dorm, hoping her roommate was asleep.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Harry opened the door to room three of the Downtowner Motel with the key assigned. Normally he would have used magic to do so, but after using legilimancy to convince the man behind the reception desk to give him his room for free, he didn't have the power to spare and not risk passing out in where he stood. He stepped into the room and looked around. It was unpleasant, that much he knew. There was a low down double bed, a table and a small television. He walked into the room and shut the door. Had he not felt so weak and tired, he'd have avoided a place like this. He hated small rooms.

Whilst he was used to small, cramp rooms for most of his life, having slept in a cupboard under stairs as well as a small room at the Dursleys for his remaining years there, he was now most certainly claustrophobic. He didn't talk about why.

He removed the large dark golden dragonhide belt from around his stomach and dropped it to the floor. The belt ensured that his battle robes, both with a slit down each side where his legs were, stayed on. Only the shoulder and underarm part of the robe held it together. It had been modified for manoeuvrability and as such didn't look much like standard robes anymore. He pulled the blood red material over his head and let them drop to the floor.

Next he pulled off the fingerless gauntlets from his arms as well as his boots and shin guards, all made of the same dark gold dragon scales. Unfortunately for Harry the greaves and chest armour could only be removed by magic and as of now, he didn't have it in him to do so.

As the adrenalin left his body he sat down heavily on the lifeless mattress he had been provided. He dropped his head into his hands and took a deep shuddering breath. He was still alive. He was alive and was in America. It was damn near miraculous.

Going into that battle had been suicidal. He _knew_ that was wasn't coming out it alive. Still, he had thrown himself into it, Even with the advancements he had made in training, Voldemort was still better than him. Fifty years experience was difficult to master when you were only 20. He had been sure he was going to die but felt better knowing that Voldemort he would take Voldemort with him.

One line of the Trelawney Prophecy said, '_And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.' _Whilst that line could be taken in a dozen different ways, Harry read that line as saying that he and Voldemort would end each others lives. It had almost come true, but apparently his interpretation was wrong.

He lay down on the bed, staring at the water damaged ceiling. He was still alive and tomorrow he could return home and help rebuild his world.

**OoOoOoOoO**

_(Sunnydale – Sunday October 8th, 2000)_

Buffy walked leisurely towards her old Watcher, Rupert Giles' home. Whilst it was a Sunday afternoon and she would much rather spend her time doing absolutely nothing, she needed to tell Giles about the mysterious 'Harry' and see if she could find out anything more about him. He was powerful and she needed to know if he was in need of a good laying… Slaying. She blushed.

Walking in without knocking, as was usual protocol for someone's home, Buffy entered the building, "Giles!" she called out before even across the threshold. She caught sight of the older man sitting on his couch with a pile of books in front of him. Not an unusual sight. He looked up as she entered.

"Is it beyond your capabilities to knock once in a while?" he asked tiredly. It was an old argument. But despite knowing Buffy would never listen he did have to try.

"Morning Giles," Buffy greet brightly, ignoring his comment about knocking. She looked over at the other space on the couch that contained her best friend and practising Wicca witch, Willow Rosenberg. "Will, what you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

Her red headed friend smiled brightly, "Books! Giles is letting me borrow one for, you know, the magic."

Buffy smiled fondly at her enthusiastic friend, "That's cool Wills'."

"How did the patrol go last night Buffy?" Giles asked. While there was no current big threats to deal with, demons and vampires were still out there and patrolling Sunnydale's many graveyards was still, unfortunately, necessary.

"Gee Giles, I'm fine, thanks for asking," Buffy said sarcastically to the Englishman as she sat down.

Giles just sighed, "How are you Buffy?"

She smiled brightly at him, "I'm good Giles, thanks for asking."

"And how was patrol?" he asked, somewhat tiredly. Just getting answers out of her was chore at times. It was akin to pulling teeth. He knew he brought it upon himself by acting how Buffy wanted; the old man. Unfortunately, he just couldn't help it.

"Oh it was fine," Buffy answered casually, something that set Giles on edge. That usually meant something had happened. "Well," she said a moment later, confirming Giles' suspicion. "Fine, if you don't count me running into a trap, almost dying and meeting a potential Big Bad."

Giles closed his eyes, pulling off his glasses and cleaning them. It was a reflex habit he'd picked up over the years, something he did when he was stressed or had to try work out what to say next. It was disturbing how often Buffy put him into those situations.

"OhmyGod, what happened? Are you ok? Did you get them?" gushed Willow, looking worried.

Buffy chuckled slightly, "Will…"

"Sorry," Willow said quickly, realising she was babbling again, something she did when nervous.

"What happened Buffy?" Giles asked, leaning closer to her slightly. A new 'Big Bad' was not good.

"I found a vamp in Restfield during patrol and as soon as he saw me he turned and ran. Naturally, I chased him down and found three more waiting for me."

"Four vampires is hardly the worst you've faced before Buffy," Giles said. She glared at him and he realised it was time for him to stop talking.

"As I was saying," she shot another glare at Giles. "I dusted three of them and just before I could dust the last one, six more turned up."

"Oh dear," Giles muttered. Three was fine. Seven afterwards was not.

"I realised I couldn't fight all of them so I turned to run, only, there's this guy standing right in my way, as casual as you please, leaning against a headstone, smoking."

Giles picked up a piece of paper from the table in front of him, ready to write down whatever Buffy could recall about the stranger for further research, "He was emitting smoke?" Giles asked.

"No Giles," Buffy said with a condescending glance. "He had a cigarette."

Giles blushed slightly, "Sorry. Continue."

"I was ready to fight him but my Slayer-senses completely wigged out around him and I knew fighting him was not a good idea," Buffy said.

Giles paled slightly. Slayer's had a strong intuition regarding the supernatural, from prophetic dreams to gut feelings. Gut feeling often kept Slayer's alive for a little while longer than they realistically should survive. The fact that Buffy had a strong feeling not to fight him was bad.

"What did your senses tell you of him?" Giles asked. Willow sat in silence.

"That he'd kill me before I could even get near him," Buffy answered, a serious look on her face.

"What happened next?" he asked, not looking forward to finding out.

"I decided to take my chances with the vampires," she winced slightly. "There were too many of them though."

"You couldn't run?" he asked. Despite what Buffy was saying, he knew she had to have made it out alright, after all, a vampire would have either killed her or sired her and as she was sitting in front of him. Having entered his house without invitation, he knew she was neither dead nor undead. Also, it was sunny outside.

Buffy looked uncomfortable again, "I hesitated in front of him for a second and the vamps surrounded me," Giles nodded, silently asking her to continue. "The vamps got the jump on me after a minute and had me pinned down. Just when one was about to… to bite me, the guy whistled. Loudly."

Willow's eyebrow's rose, "Was this around 1am? Three sharp whistles?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Buffy said, looking at Willow in confusion.

"I heard it. I was in my dorm and I heard a really loud noise, I thought someone was whistling below my window, but there wasn't," she said quickly.

"Good Lord," Giles muttered. "Willow, your dormitory must be almost four miles away from Restfield. Are you sure you heard it?"

"I know I did Giles! Buffy said it was at the same time I heard it."

"When I say loud Giles, I mean it. I was surprised I could still hear afterwards."

"And he did this by whistling?" Buffy nodded. "I can't recall any demons with that sort of ability."

"It gets weirder Giles," Buffy assured him. "The vamps all looked up at this point and the guy just walks over to them and politely asks me if I needed any help." Giles could tell that despite witnessing it happen she still couldn't quite believe it had happened. She mumbled something he didn't catch.

"What was that Buffy?" Giles asked kindly.

She grimaced, "He called me 'Blonde Girl.'"

Giles smiled slightly at the look of frustration on the girls face. "Did he help you?" Willow asked.

"One of the vamps asked who he was and he glared at it so it jumped at him. He pulled out some sort of weird stake, yelled something about 'Nintendo' and a ball of fire burst from the stake and turned the vamp to dust."

Giles frowned, his mind running through demons or creatures that could do such a thing and found himself lacking. His best guess was that whoever Buffy had met was a warlock or a sorcerer. "You say he shouted 'Nintendo'?" Giles asked Buffy questioningly. He knew his Slayer was notorious at getting names wrong, especially the Latin ones. He still remembered clearly when Buffy had mistakenly heard the name of a 4500 year old vampire, one of the most powerful and feared vampires in history named Kakistos as 'Taquitos' and 'Kissing Toast.' There were times when he was sure she did this deliberately, just to annoy him.

Buffy shrugged, "I was a bit preoccupied Giles."

"Was it an incantation?" Willow asked him.

Giles nodded, "Yes Willow, I believe it was." He thought over the incantations that a magic user could use to create a ball of fire. Most incantations were in Latin, a language he was fluent in. "Did he by chance say 'Incendo'?" Giles asked.

Buffy's face scrunched up slightly as she thought about it, "It sounds similar, but not right." Giles nodded, trusting Buffy's word on it. There were numerous spells that created fire so it was likely that there were a lot he didn't know. He did know that combat spells of that type were usually incredibly draining on the caster.

"What happened with the rest of the vampires?" Giles asked Buffy.

"They attacked him, completely forgetting about me I might add," Giles smiled slightly again at how annoyed she sounded at this fact. "He yelled 'Send some flag jello' and a fire whip came out of his stake and he cut them to dust with one swipe."

Giles paled and sat backwards as did Willow. He had never heard of a spell like that and the fact that it came from a stake confused him. The fact that he dusted six vampires in a second worried him. Whilst there was no indication that the sorcerer meant any harm to his Slayer, they still didn't know enough. He thought of the words used in the incantation for the fire whip. "Censum Flagello?" he asked, translating the words 'fire' and 'whip' into Latin.

Buffy nodded, "That was it."

"And how was he after he used the spell?"

Buffy shrugged, "Seemed fine. Asked me if I was alright as if nothing had happened."

Giles removed his glasses again, cleaning them even though it wasn't needed. The spells that this sorcerer was apparently using were exceptionally draining, most magic being used purely in ritualistic manor, requiring a focus and meditation before working. If the man wasn't drained after using such spells then he was clearly exceptionally powerful. He was beginning to seriously hope he had nothing against them.

"What happened then?" Willow chimed in quietly. Having recently taken a proper interest in magic and the teachings of Wicca, Giles was sure she knew the difficulty of those spells. Buffy didn't.

She shrugged again, "We talked. He said his name was Harry." She frowned, "He didn't even know he was in California until he asked and I told him where he was. When I did tell him he said that it made sense."

Giles frowned again. This was making very little sense all in all. "And then?"

"He asked where a motel was, thanked me and left," Buffy answered.

"And you didn't question him further?" Giles asked in surprise. He knew Buffy hated mysteries and surprises. Her not getting answers out of someone only happened to her when she was physically overpowered.

"Why didn't you keep asking questions?" Willow asked, slightly surprised.

"He hadn't done any damage to me and I didn't want to push him too far," Buffy said easily.

Giles frowned again. Knowing his Slayer, even threat of death wouldn't silence her. Very little intimidated her; She would mock, joke and laugh in the face of danger, not quietly let it walk away. If he was to take a guess he would have said this Harry had used mind control of some sort to stop her asking questions. He was unsure what to do if that was the case. That sort of magic was the type that only vampires of over 1000 years had access to, but to have the victim not know it was being used on them was worrying. He'd have to see what he could find in his books. If this Harry was as powerful as his gut was telling him, he would find something.

"What did he look like?" Giles asked, looking for something that would narrow down a search in finding information. "Did he have any identifying marks of any kind?"

Buffy considered her answer for a moment. "He was tall, over 6ft, short black hair and gorgeous green eyes," she trailed off with a smile, obviously remembering them. Giles scowled at her. "Sorry," she said, noticing Giles' look. "Oh, he had a nasty scar down the right side of his face. It was black and had to have almost taken out his eye." She frowned slightly and Giles couldn't help but think she was annoyed that someone would try damage those 'gorgeous green eyes.'

Why did Slayer's have to be teenage girls?

Despite her comment about the sorcerer's eyes, the information on the scar might prove helpful. He looked at her again, seeing if she had any more information. "Oh!" she said, "He was English!" She looked quite please at having remembered.

"English?" Giles asked.

She nodded, "Mhmm, not as 'English' as you or Wesley, but definitely English."

"'Not as English'?" Giles asked hesitantly, not really wanting to know the answer. He had his guesses however.

Buffy thought about how to phrase her reply, "He didn't sound as though he sipped tea and ate crumpets all day," she answered simply and with a smile.

Giles sighed in resignation having expected that. At least she hadn't done her impression of him. He observed her smile, not showing that he was somewhat amused by the answer. It wouldn't do to encourage her. "Quite," Giles answered dryly, only getting a bigger smile from the blonde girl and her redheaded friend. "Is there anything else you can tell me?" he asked. "What he was wearing for example?"

"There weren't any symbols if that's what you mean, but he wore some sort of dark gold armour that almost looked like snake skin."

"Most likely demon skin then," Giles told her. "There are several that have skin with a strong magical protection, even after the demon is dead."

"Ewww…" Buffy mutter, shuddering at the thought. "He had a red robe as well only it wasn't really… robe-y."

Giles did his best not to show his disapproval at her butchery of the English language. "Could you describe it?" Giles asked. Certain clans and covens wore distinctive robes and a description could easily show who he belonged to. Even if he didn't have the knowledge there was an incredibly powerful Wicca coven back in England that he could contact.

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment, obviously trying to piece together an image from last night. She opened her eyes, "It didn't have sleeves and ran down his front in two strips." Her face scrunched up as she tried to describe the strange robe, "I think it was held together by a thick belt around his stomach that look like the same stuff his armour was made of. The back just hung straight down, barely wider that his legs put together."

Giles made a few educated guesses and drew a sketch of what Buffy described. Whilst he wasn't overly talented at drawing, he knew enough to get by. "Does this look like what he was wearing?" he asked, handing his sketch over to Buffy. Willow stood up to have a look.

Buffy examined it for a moment, "It had a hood as well and the front bits were thinner." Giles made the alterations and looked long and hard at the robe. He frowned. "Does it look familiar?" Buffy asked.

Giles shook his head, "I'm afraid not Buffy, but I shall look through what information I have and see if we can ascertain who wears such a robe."

Buffy nodded, a smile on her face. It warmed him to know that she was confident that he'd find the information needed. "Do you think he's a threat?"

Giles thought about it, "I can't say for certain. Whilst he did nothing to harm you he may have just wished to see how you fought. We don't know if he sent the vampires or was simply following you."

"We… we don't know that he's not a threat either though," Willow pitched in.

"Whilst true, we still have no evidence to say."

"He wasn't there when the fight started Giles, I'm sure of it," Buffy said. "I think he turned up just after it did though."

Giles hummed in thought, "Perhaps he simply stumbled upon the fight and wished to help," Giles conceded. "Regardless, should you see him again I would advise caution until we know where his priorities lie."

Buffy and Willow nodded in understanding. "Which motel did you point him towards Buffy?" Giles asked.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Twelve hours after collapsing on the motel bed Harry awoke with a start from his nightmare. Despite the little amount of sleep he had gotten it was more than he usually managed and as such he felt reasonably refreshed, even if his magic was still extremely low for him. He pushed himself out of his bed. Not wanting to use any magic Harry kept on his greaves and chest armour whilst he showered. The armour, impervious to water, remained reasonably dry.

Putting his robes, shin guards and gauntlets back on, Harry left his motel room and posted his key through the motel owner's door. He stood outside, looking up at the sun. He was still alive. It was something of a remarkable experience. He'd survived Voldemort; he had actually beaten the man. He'd stepped into hell and come out the other side in America. Only in his life could such a thing happen. A quote someone had used to describe him a year ago sprung to mind, "Heaven doesn't want you and Hell's afraid you'll take over."

He was beginning to believe this comment now.

Of course, he could actually _be_ in Hell. He was in America after all. Vernon had often made comparisons between the two. He shook his head, clearing Dursley related thoughts from his mind. He picked up an empty bottle, tapped it with the Elder Wand and uttered one word, "_Portus_."

He become light headed from the amount of power casting an international portkey in his currently weak state. It usually wouldn't have taken that much out of him. He grasped the bottle tightly in his hands, "Activate," he muttered and he felt the pull around his naval.

The journey felt as though it took hours, but after only four minutes he landed, hard, on grass at his destination. He rolled over and vomited. Shaking his head to try clear the cobwebs the journey had created in his mind. Slowly Harry pushed himself to his feet. The sun was bright, hovering just overhead.

He stared in shock at his surroundings. The portkey was meant to drop him off in Hogsmeade and he knew he'd made no mistakes. The problem was, there was no Hogsmeade. From where he stood he should have been able to see most of the village, the Forbidden Forrest as well as the gigantic castle of Hogwarts.

He walked forward slowly, holding his wand in a firm grip. Something weird was going on and he was nervous. He continued forward, feeling an incredible surge of power. He took a deep breath, too relaxed to panic at the strange sensation. Taking another deep breath he came to the startling realisation that his magic was now back to full strength. His eye began to glow and he carefully surveyed the area around him. Where he knew the centre of Hogwarts should be there was an extreme amount of magic being emitted from the ground. Pure, untapped magic. Apparently, there had never been a magical castle here. Ever.

"Oh bugger," Harry muttered, knowing that something had gone very wrong during his trip through the Veil.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**AN****:** _For those that have read my other work-in-progress, this will sound familiar from the early chapters. There will be no update on this story for a while. I've not written a third chapter and I still need to rewatch the fourth season of BtVS before I can write more. As I'm currently in the middle (Well, season 6) of the West Wing just now, I won't be writing more until I've gotten that show out of my system._

_A side note, the armour Harry is wearing is a near replica of the Jedi Adventure Robe from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Never before has there been a cooler item of clothing in a video game. I hope I described it well, as it took some time to do._

_Harry's whistle is the one that Doctor Cox uses in Scrubs. I would kill to be able to whistle like that…_


	3. Welcome to Sunnyhell

**AN:** _Another chapter to enjoy and stuff… Next chapter is barely written; so again, don't expect an update for a while._

**Chapter 3 – Welcome to Sunnyhell**

Four days after reappearing back in Britain, Harry Potter landed with a heavy thud back in Sunnydale California. The last few days had been extremely distressing and as far as he was aware, he could most likely get answers back where he first appeared. Well, he hoped.

Quickly after taking a Portkey to Hogsmeade he knew something was wrong. There had been nothing there. No school, no forest, no town. There hadn't even been a lake. After taking out his Firebolt from the trunk he carried everything he owned in, he'd flown around the area and come to the conclusion that, A, he was in the right place and B, Hogwarts had never been there. Not capable of understanding what had happened he had Apparated to The Leaky Cauldron to find himself in an antique shop. The terrified owner had promptly

been Obliviated.

He'd tried the Ministry of Magic building next only to find a small office building there instead. He'd searched for the Burrow, the ancestral home of the Weasleys, only to find a deserted moor. The Diggory and Lovegood homes were also nowhere to be seen. He'd begun to panic at this point until a thought crossed his mind.

Parallel Universes.

He knew a small amount of the theory of the multiverse, most of it more than likely from Hermione trying to teach himself and Ron something new she'd learned. Whilst magic had never proved any of these realities existed, it was speculated that they did. According to Hermione, even muggles believed this.

'_Is it possible I'm in an alternate reality where magic never existed?_' Harry had asked himself before deciding that theory was wrong. He'd seen vampires only a couple of days before as well as the short blonde fighting girl with the golden aura. He'd also felt how strong the area around where Hogwarts should have been was. From this he knew that magic existed, just not in the form he'd known it. It explained the deformed features on the vampires he'd seen in Sunnydale at any rate.

With that thought in mind he spent a few days travelling. He'd spent most of a day searching the London underground, looking for the Veil, or at least, the equivalent in this world. He found nothing. He'd travelled outside of the country, visiting a few foreign areas he had during the war, still finding no trace of a similar magic society.

With the small amount of money he had with him, curiously, exactly the same notes that this reality used, he rented himself a cheap hotel in London. During those days he didn't spend searching he'd taken to reading the large selection of books from his multi-compartmental trunk he'd received from the Order of the Phoenix on his 17th birthday.

Like the trunk used by Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody it contained 7 separate compartments, each containing more space than a normal trunk would. Each compartment contained more room than the one before it, allowing the 7th compartment enough room for someone to fully enter the trunk and walk around. This last compartment was where Harry held all his books, a library nearing 900 separate volumes, including selected books from the Potter family library, the Black family library and the entire private book collection of Albus Dumbledore, something the old man had left to him in his will.

Having moved around frequently since leaving Hogwarts he had always carried his possessions with him. If they got damaged or destroyed it was likely that he would be dead. If he was dead then Voldemort had won and he didn't want that bastard getting his hands on his things.

Harry spent hours pouring over the books he'd taken with him, looking for everything he could find on alternate realities and parallel universes. His search came up with very little information and nothing more than he already knew.

He'd also searched through phone books for names he knew. From what he could tell after four days, there were no Potter's that had existed in his world, no Malfoy's, nor Granger's, Weasley's, Longbottom's or any other person from his world. It left him feeling more alone than he had since before his Hogwarts years.

Magically restored and fully out of ideas on what to do next Harry decided that Sunnydale had a good chance of answering his questions as that town had been the host to some serious magic.

He dressed in his usual attire. A sleeveless dragonhide vest was attached to his chest, something he had barely taken off since getting it. Whilst it didn't hold as much protection as the dragonhide armour he wore when he fought, the vest would protect him from lower level spells as well as knives and bullets fired at point-blank range. The dark golden fingerless gauntlets he wore to fight were placed on as well, protecting his hands and forearms, as well as covering the scars he'd received from Dolores Umbridge's blood-quill in his 5th year.

The dragonhide boots and shin protectors were worn as well, further adding to his protection. Over the armour he always had on him he wore dark green military style trousers and a long sleeved black t-shirt that covered most of his gauntlets and the wand holster on his left forearm. Attaching a thin leather black dragonhide belt to waist containing all his supplies, trunk included, he was set to leave England. He felt as though he was going to war. Looking as though he was didn't help either.

His Portkey dropped him off in the same location that he had spoken to the blonde girl. Having timed his trip in cooperation with the time difference between England and California, he arrived just before lunch time. Thankfully he wasn't sick during this trip.

He pushed himself to his feet using the headstone he had sat on days before. The name on the stone was 'Neil Sharpels'. He felt the magic in his dragonhide armour react to the new temperature around him and compensate to keep him comfortable. He saw two separate funerals taking place around him but thankfully no one had noticed his arrival. He left the graveyard quickly heading in the same direction he had had four nights ago. He past the motel he'd stayed in with nary a glance.

Every so often he would activate his aura sight and look around him. Despite everything he had ever seen before, this town was extremely odd. First and most obvious was the large dome-shaped ward that surrounded the entire town. Some wards he could tell just by sight, but this was different. His current destination was the ward line to see just what it protected this town from or what it did.

The second thing he noticed was the extensive black magic that the ground seemed drenched in. It seemed to come from the centre of the town – judging on its position in regards to the size of the dome ward – and slowly weaken the further it carried on for. Harry had no idea what type of magic it was but it gave him an odd, sick feeling. If his stay in this town lasted longer than he currently planned, he would make an effort to stay away from the centre of the disturbance.

He kept walking through the town, noticing oddities more and more as he walk. After 30 minutes Harry had counted 6 graveyards and they weren't small either. He had also counted a staggering 17 churches. He had the feeling that this town had a lot more. From his estimate, the town wasn't that large, a population smaller than 50,000, but that amount of graveyards was obscene. The town seemed perfectly peaceful though. He reached the edge of town and noticed that the protection ward stopped literally on the town boarder, mere inches away from the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign post.

He pulled out his wand, activated his aura sight and began to cast diagnostic spells on the point where the ward ended. Bill Weasley had taught him some simple methods of curse breaking and warding during the training he received in his 6th year.

He stood on the same spot for 20 minutes, casting every spell he knew. By the time he'd finished he was getting hungry and had no answers. The ward was something completely different than anything he'd seen before. He had no idea what it did. Deciding that, for the time being, the ward meant no harm to him he tapped himself on the chest with his wand, casting a notice-me-not charm and Apparating back into town near the Motel he'd stayed in. He removed the charm and set about finding somewhere to eat. Not bothered about where he ate he entered 'Burger World', the first place that he saw.

Ordering a meal fit for Ron Weasley and using mind magic to get it for free he sat down and began to eat. Wondering just what he was going to do in this unusual town. Knowing that the short blonde girl he saw fighting vampires four days ago knew about magic Harry rationalised that he should probably try and find her, hopefully in more of a normal situation and see what she knew. He leaned his chair against the wall behind him and looked around the eatery.

His war training still at the forefront of his mind had caused him to sit with his back to a wall with as much visibility of his surroundings as he could get. In a war where even your best friend could try kill you without a moments notice, knowing your surroundings and who was there at any given time was crucial.

He took a sip of his black coffee, resisting the urge to smoke. One thing he hated about the non-magical world was that smoking was restricted. In Hogwarts he'd been allowed to smoke anywhere and at any time, as long as it wasn't in class. That most likely hadn't helped his addiction.

A bell jingled as the front entrance opened and Harry resisted the urge either laugh or curse. Short Blonde Girl entered along with a taller girl with shoulder length red hair, a few shades darker than that of 'Weasley Red'. He pushed himself back slightly, hiding himself from their immediate view. His right iris shone blue as he focused on Blonde Girl. The same golden aura resided around her.

It was the red haired girl that immediately got his attention as his sight changed though. He frowned, trying to understand what he was seeing. At first glance he'd have said she was magical but her aura didn't match to that of a witch. Whilst she wasn't a magic user in the traditional sense, she still had access _to_ magic. Energy from the earth was absorbed into her, including a small amount of black from what Harry assumed was magic from the Veil that was most likely nearby. He had never seen anything like it and although he was unsure of how to read her properly, at a glance he would say she was extremely powerful even though she had little control. His iris turned back to green as he watched them order their meals.

Short Blonde Girl picked up her tray and turned around, looking for a spare table. As the place was reasonably busy she had to scan the entire room. Her eyes stopped on him and an unmistakeable look of recognition flashed across her pretty face. Red Haired girl stopped beside her friend and noticed where she was looking. Her eyes widened and Harry guessed she'd mentioned their meeting. He looked her in the eye and sensed she felt nervous, but strangely, excited as well. Short Blonde Girl slowly made her way over to him.

Harry waved his hand to the chairs in front of them as they neared, "Have a seat." They sat.

"So, Harry," Blonde Girl said. The way she said his name indicated that she still didn't quite believe him.

He rolled his eyes and offered his right hand, "Harry Potter," he said. Blonde Girl looked at the gauntlet on his hand and hesitated. "It's just a glove," Harry said rolling his eyes.

"You've still not given me any reason to trust you," she pointed out.

Knowing that he did need to try get answers out of the girl he decided he'd cooperate for now. He pulled the dark golden gauntlet from his hand and placed it on the table. He held his hand out to her again, "Harry Potter."

She shook his hand, "Buffy Summers." The name received a raised eyebrow from Harry.

He turned towards the red head and held out his hand to her as well. "Willow Rosenberg," she said. He felt just how powerful the girl was when he touched her skin. He released her hand and leaned back, just watching both of them, waiting for them to begin. He pulled his right gauntlet back on.

"So it's you again," Buffy said, clearly trying to get the ball rolling.

"I'm as surprised as you are," Harry answered evenly.

"You can do magic?" Willow asked him. "You're a sorcerer?"

He observed her carefully causing her to blush and look down at her food. "I'm a wizard, if that's what you mean. Sorcerer is a term that hasn't be used in centuries."

"Oh," she muttered, "There's a difference?"

Harry shrugged, "Not as such." He began eating again, still very hungry and not wanting his food to go cold, "So if I'm a wizard, what are you two?" he asked.

"What makes you think I'm anything?" Buffy asked, not admitting anything.

"You fought vampires hand to hand and were winning until you were outnumbered. One vampire should have been too much for you, yet you fought four without difficulty."

"And me?" Willow asked.

"I could feel you were powerful the moment you entered the room and touching your hand was like…" he tried to think of a muggle equivalent. "Like static electricity."

"Sorry," she muttered, looking embarrassed that she'd caused such a reaction.

Harry waved it off, "So what are each of you?"

"I'm the Slayer," Buffy answered. It was answered in such a way that screamed that he should know what that was. He didn't have a clue.

"The what?" he asked.

In return for his question he got two incredulous stares. "Um, you know…The Slayer."

"The slayer of what?" Harry asked.

"Of vampires," she answered as though talking to a child.

"Doesn't ring a bell," Harry answered, now beginning to enjoy the looks on their faces. He'd been on the opposite end to this when trying to recruit magic users from different countries that had very little idea who the Boy-who-lived was.

"Into each generation a girl is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. How is this not ringing any bells?" Buffy asked oddly.

Harry shook his head, "I've never heard anything like it." He thought about what she'd said again, "Demons?" he asked sceptically.

The look they were shooting him increased and now they looked at him as though he was completely mad, "Demons? You know, as in, demons? You fought vampires last time I saw you. You must know!"

Harry frowned, his mind slowly piercing together just what was different in this world. If demons still existed it added a large piece to the puzzle Harry was trying to put together. It explained a few things and gave him a few theories. He shook his head, "Ignore me," he looked at Willow, "And you are?"

"I'm a witch," she said proudly.

Harry frowned again, knowing that her aura was different than any witch he'd ever seen, "No, your not," he answered without thinking.

"Hey! I-I'm a great witch! I mean, I can't do that much _now_ but I'm learning!" Willow said in indignation. Buffy glared at him.

Harry held up his hands in surrender with a small smile, "I apologize. I'll rephrase that. You're not like any magic user I've ever seen before, something completely different from what I would consider and call a witch."

"Oh," Willow said, calming down slightly. "What do you mean different?"

Harry decided to hold off explaining what he had seen. He knew that his magic came from his blood and circulated around his body at all times. His magic was internal magic, drawn from his 'core'. Her magic seemed to be, if he were to take a guess, drawn from the planet itself. He'd never heard of magic user like her. "It just has a different feel to it," Harry told her. "I don't know how to explain it really."

"So why are you in Sunnydale?" Buffy asked, now beginning to eat her food. Harry tried to work out if that meant she was more comfortable with him now or just that she was hungry.

"First time? That was a mistake, if you hadn't guessed from the questions I asked. Now? I was looking for you."

"Me?" Buffy asked. Her expression hardened slightly, "Why?"

Harry pointed a finger at her, "_You _need to relax more."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to point at people?" Buffy pointed out with a scowl that she didn't really seem to mean.

Harry actually thought about the answer, "No actually. I was told that if a strange man offered me sweets that I should go with him." He half smiled at their somewhat horrified faces. "Not the most nurturing of childhoods but I survived. As for why I was looking for you, well, I need answers and as you are the only person I've met who knows about magic and so you could perhaps help."

"Oh, well I'm not really Answer-girl," Buffy said before smiling. "You could ask Giles."

"Hey, why can't he ask me?" Willow asked Buffy with a small pout. "I'm Answer-girl!"

Buffy turned back to Harry, "Or you could ask Will."

Harry observed the duo for a moment. Neither gave off the vibe that Hermione gave that told you that you could ask them anything and they'd know the answer. He decided to give her a chance. "What do you know about parallel universes?" he asked the red head.

Her face split into a bright smile, "Oh! I know about them! We had an evil version of me from one last year. We did spells and did research and I got to wear leather…" She trailed off slightly at the end, "But you didn't need to know that part."

Harry just blinked at quick fire response, "What happened to, er, evil you?"

"Well, we were gonna kill her, but I didn't want to, so we sent her back to her world," she looked pensive for a moment, "I wonder how she's doing."

"Will, focus," Buffy said. She turned to Harry with a look of comprehension, "You're from an alternate reality?" she half asked, half stated. Willow's eyes widened.

Harry nodded, "As far as I can tell. I was in London one moment, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a graveyard and that was when I heard your fight."

"So you weren't trying to kill me then?" Buffy asked.

Harry laughed slightly, "No, nor do I have any intention to." He looked to Willow, "You'll be able to get me back to my dimension?"

Willow nodded enthusiastically, "If we did it before we could probably do it again," she thought about her answer a bit more. "Possibly…"

Harry just nodded to her. 'Possibly' was better than he had 10 minutes ago when all he knew was that he was looking for a Blonde Girl that fought vampires.

"That's why you don't know about the Slayer!" Buffy said, perhaps a bit more loudly than she intended. At Harry's pointed look she realised that she may have been a bit loud. "Sorry," she said quickly. "But you don't know about the Slayer because you don't _have_ a Slayer."

Harry nodded, "Probably. Given the fact that we don't have demons either would probably make the role redundant."

"Wait… your world has _no _demons?" Buffy asked, her eyes wide.

"No, but from that look that you're giving me, I assure you that it's no paradise," Harry told her seriously. From the feeling he got from her, her initial thought was that a world without demons was an Eden like world.

She frowned, "But if you don't have demons, what _do _you have?"

"A topic for another day," Harry said dismissively. "I just want to know if and when I can get back to my world." As he said the words it surprised him at just how much he didn't mean them. Yes, he missed his friends, he wanted to know who survived the Ministry Raid, but other than a few friends there was nothing there for him.

The war was over and, for all he knew, he'd been declared dead. If he returned it would be like the second coming of Jesus. He was already their messiah and rising from the flames like a phoenix would be the first step to God-hood in their eyes. He would _be_ Albus Dumbledore and that was not something he wanted. He didn't _want_ be the man everyone took their problems to and expected miracles. He didn't want to be the chess player, playing with real people instead of small marble figures. Whilst a normal quite life was something he no longer wished for, he wanted anonymity.

Still, home was home and it wasn't like he could stay here. "Well," Buffy said sounding slightly annoyed. "Giles said he was busy for the afternoon so you don't have any other choice but to stay and chat with us." She finished with a smug smile that clearly said '_whether you like it or not.'_

"I could always continue exploring this odd town of yours," Harry said.

"And we'd just follow you," Buffy countered.

Harry smiled; he liked this girl again. "You couldn't keep up."

Buffy huffed, "I could _so_ keep up with you. I could keep up with you so well that I'd… be like some, big keeping thing."

Harry raised an eyebrow, an amused look on his face, "Like a 'keeper' then?" She glared at him and he laughed, both at the look on her face and the befuddled one on her friend.

"Anywho," Willow said, interrupting the argument before Buffy got violent. "D'ya know how you got pulled into our dimension? Was it some black magic gone wrong, or an evil warlock or something?" she asked excitedly.

Harry chuckled at her enthusiasm. If he were to guess he'd have said she was high on sugar or caffeine, but from the look her friend gave her, this over excitability was normal. He considered his answer. As he was probably relying on her and this 'Giles' bloke, he decided on going with the truth. "Have you heard of something either called The Veil or a Hellmouth?" he asked.

"Sunnydale was built on top of a Hellmouth," Buffy told him. "Never heard of The Veil before though."

Harry nodded, having already expected this. "They're the same thing where I'm from. I don't know how things are _here_ but back in my world the Hellmouths are protected by large stone archways that are protected with a phantom veil of sorts." He felt cold as he remembered the event that had only happened a few days ago. "I was fighting a madman in the Veil room when I stepped through it and woke up in the graveyard I saw you at." He nodded towards Buffy.

"So you fell _through_ the Hellmouth?" Willow asked, amazed.

"The madman had succeeded in almost opening it and I imagine that's why I'm here and not having pitchforks jammed where pitchforks shouldn't go. I was quite surprised to find myself in California."

"Well, it should be possible to get you home, although, with the Hellmouthy stuff, it'll probably be more difficult," Willow told him. "Right Buff?"

She looked over to Buffy and Harry noticed quickly that her facial expression was stuck on, 'huh?' "Buffy?" Willow asked concerned.

The blonde snapped out of her trance and looked closely at Harry, "What did you mean by Hell_mouths_?" she asked, quietly.

"That's there's more than one?" Harry half asked; confused at her odd look. Buffy's blank face suddenly became expressional but he couldn't quite work out what it meant. Willow paled slightly, obviously coming to the same realisation as Buffy had.

"More?" Willow asked, her voice scared. "There's more than one?"

Harry's eyes widened slightly in understanding; they obviously hadn't known about the existence of others, "There were seven in my world, should be the same here."

"S-s-seven?" Willow asked, her voice rising slightly, obviously panicked. "There are _seven_ Hellmouths?! Seven?!"

Harry nodded, "If you don't know about them odds are good that they were sealed like those in my world were. I can imagine it would be pretty obvious if that weren't the case."

His mind was working over the 'What's different in this reality?' problem he'd been thinking about for a few days now. From what he could tell the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, whilst not sealed properly, was closed to an extent. Added to the fact that he'd found no magic users similar to him in three continents gave him a pretty solid conclusion. If things were as he thought just now, in the Magic Vs Demon wars that were fought thousands of years ago had a different outcome. Of what, he didn't really know, but an educated guess said that, instead of the magic users winning as had happened in his world, the battle had ended in a draw of sorts, with most of the Hellmouths being sealed and hidden, whilst one remained. Odds were good that all the 'pure-blooded' magic users had died, meaning that they hadn't continued to breed, thus not creating the magic world he'd spent half his life in. The fact that the rest of the world seemed not to have changed at all was quite astounding. It also said just how useless in the grand scheme of things his magic world was.

This world was proving to be quite interesting. He wondered which world, his or this one, was the more screwed up.

Buffy turned to Willow, "Do you think Giles knows this?" she asked.

"He would have told us if he did," she answered confidently. She seemed to way her answer over in her head, "He would, wouldn't he?" she asked her friend with slightly less confidence than she had before.

"I'm sure he would," Buffy said, reassuring her friend. "Giles wouldn't keep something like that from me. Although, we're gonna ask him now what he _does _know." She took a large bite from the burger in front of her, wiped her mouth and pushed herself to her feet.

"I thought you said he was busy all afternoon?" Harry asked.

She looked at him a little smugly, "I lied."

Harry just looked at her in quiet amusement. Yeah, she didn't know him, didn't know who he was in his own world, but she was treating him just like anyone else who was caught in this odd situation. It didn't happen often and he enjoyed it immensely when it did. "Want some company?" he asked, standing up as well. He still needed his answers.

She smiled at him, a friendly smile now, "Sure." She turned to her friend who was still sitting down, looking bemused. "You comin' Wills?" she asked.

The red head snapped out of her daze, "Right! On my way." She stood up and they walked outside the fast food restaurant.

Harry winced slightly as the sun hit his eyes. He'd caught more sun in the last day than he ever had back in Britain. If he wasn't careful he was going to burn badly.

"So what kinda magic can you do?" Willow asked him with a curious and excited expression on her face that made her look about 8 years old.

"You mean like transfiguration and conjuration and things like that?" Harry asked, not knowing what kind of magic was used in this world. Willows magical signature and therefore her magic was very different from his.

"You know conjuration?" she asked, eyes wide. "That's meant to be really difficult to do. What d'ya conjure? Demons and stuff?"

"I've never conjured a demon," he looked over at Buffy, "You said those vampires I saw the other night were demons, right?"

"Right…" Buffy said, not sure where he was getting at.

He turned back to Willow, "Those were the first demons I've ever seen. I can conjure, well, lots of things."

"How long did it take you learn that? I've tried to do some simple transmogrifications but, well, I'm not very good at it yet," Willow told him, obviously disappointed in her ability.

"What have you been trying to transfigure?" he asked her curiously. After starting a defence club in his 5th year, known as the DA, he had taken quite a liking to being a teacher and helping others to learn more. If his life had been anything close to normal, that probably would have been his first choice for a career. Having run the Defence Association (Formally Dumbledore's Army) for the five years that followed the creation of the DA showed the world that he was damn good at it.

"A friend of mine, Amy, transfigured herself into a rat a little while ago and I've been trying to undo that," Willow told him. "I think I've gotten close a few times but, well, she's still a rat."

"I'm basing this on _my_ magic, but being able to undo that spell would be reasonably difficult. I was able to do magic of that sort near the end of six years formal training," Harry told her. His transfiguration skills were far more impressive now. Personal tuition from Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore saw to that, both of them being the topmost experts in the field for their country, discounting Voldemort who was just naturally good at any and all wand based magic.

"You got formal training?" Willow asked excitedly.

Harry nodded, "From the age of eleven kids who showed they had magic were trained in a boarding school for seven years."

"You went to magic school!" Willow shouted, perhaps a tad too loud. "That's… that's so cool!" She pouted, her happy face gone quickly, "We don't have one of them." She turned to Buffy, "Why don't we have one of them?" Buffy shrugged.

Harry just raised an eyebrow at the redhead. Whereas she'd looked 8 years old a few moments ago, she look about 5 years old now, "You're just all highs and lows aren't you?" Harry asked, getting a small smile from Buffy and a blush from Willow. "You could always _start_ your own magic school in a few years depending on how skilful you become."

Her eyes lit up at the prospect, "I could do that! I was a good teacher, wasn't I Buffy?"

"You were good Will," Buffy said to her fondly. "I'm sure you'd be a great magic school teacher."

Willow, her mind abuzz with ideas, practically skipped down the street. "Is she always like this?" Harry asked Buffy quietly as he watched Willow.

Buffy laughed, "You should see her on coffee. First time I saw that I thought her head was going to explode."

Harry tilted his head slightly, "So she's _not_ actually high on caffeine then?" he asked.

"Nope, that's just 100 percent pure Willow," Buffy said.

Harry hummed in acknowledgement, "She's without a doubt the second oddest girl I've ever seen."

Buffy craned an eyebrow, "You've met someone odder?" she asked, indicating Willow who was now humming a song. He recognised it from a film from his early childhood. He was sure there had been magic in it because he could clearly remember the telling off Dudley got for watching it. It was one of the few times during their childhood that Dudley got reprimanded for something. He was sure whatever Dudley had been watching had dancing broomsticks or something similar. He shrugged off the odd memory.

Harry smiled, remembering Luna Lovegood, the oddest person he had ever met and would likely ever meet. "Far odder," Harry told her. The sun gleamed from a passing car and into his eyes. He winced. Why did this place have to be so damn bright?

"Not use to it being so sunny?" Buffy asked him.

Harry laughed slightly, "I didn't even know the sun could get that bright or that hot."

"You get use to it eventually," she told him with a smile. "So, what was that stake thing you used to fry the vamps a week ago?"

"Stake thing?" Harry asked before putting together what she meant. As someone who slayed vampires by what sounded like prophecy, she would assume a wooden stick was a stake. "That's my wand," Harry told her.

As if sensing that magic was being talked about again Willow turned back towards him whilst they continued to walk, "You use a magic wand?"

Harry nodded, pulling the Elder Wand from the holster slot in his left gauntlet. He twirled it in his fingers, shooting off some sparks to show that it was in fact more than a fancy looking stick, "This is my wand." He looked to Willow, "You don't use them?"

She shook her head, "From what Giles told me, wands are only used in fiction."

"I'm still putting together why this universe is different, but if I'm right wands like this haven't been used _here _in almost 7,000 years."

"You have theories?" Willow asked eagerly.

Harry nodded, sliding his wand back into his gauntlet. "I've got no actual evidence but I think so."

"Care to share them?" Willow asked.

Harry smiled at her, "If I find it's true." She pouted at him. "You're very cute when you do that," Harry told her and winked. She blushed bright red and turned away. Harry laughed, "Sorry, I couldn't resist." They continued walking, Willow still blushing and Buffy pouting slightly that he hadn't called _her_ cute.

Having grown up a lot since the days where he hadn't even been able to ask a girl he thought was cute to a Yule ball without stuttering like an idiot, he was now able to talk to girls, having been given detailed instruction in the skill; despite not having asked or wanted it. Given his destiny, he had never had a proper girl friend, but talking normally with a girl who wasn't Hermione and innocent flirting was easy for him. Apparently he had inherited more than just his fathers looks. He knew his dad would be proud.

"She has boyfriend," Buffy pointed out.

"Well, as I have no interest in a girlfriend, that's alright," Harry said. That in itself was somewhat true. He had had 'sort-of-girlfriends' before, but a proper relationship would have been far too dangerous for the girl Harry chose, meaning that it never happened. He'd survived for long enough without one, he didn't need one now, especially whilst in another dimension.

"Really?" Buffy asked.

"My life is too complicated to fit in a girlfriend. It'd be over before it even began," Harry told them, seeing no reason to lie about it.

"Morbid much?" Buffy asked.

"The way I see it," Harry said to Buffy. "Not at all."

"Mhmm," Buffy said, but she said no more. "So, what was with the whistling thing you did?"

"You don't have whistling in this world?" Harry asked Buffy with a smile.

"Yes, we do!" Buffy told him. "But when _you_ did it, it was loud."

"Magic," Harry told Buffy grin. She looked annoyed whilst Willow just looked curious.

"You don't have to be all evasive all the time you know," Buffy told him with a pout.

"It annoys you?" Harry asked casually.

"Yes!" Buffy told him.

Harry shrugged, "Then I still have reasons to continue being evasive." Just as she was about to rant at him, or he assumed rant at him, he answered her question, "Voice amplification spell applied to the throat, incantation: Sonorus."

"Oh," Buffy said, surprised that he'd answered and having her annoyance deflated before she could really get going.

Willow stopped in the street and closed her eyes. Harry looked at her oddly before turning to Buffy who looked equally confused. "Sonorus," Willow said. Harry felt her magic flare slightly but could tell the spell hadn't taken. He said nothing, watching her try a few more times; he wasn't sure if she just wasn't getting the spell right or if the spell wasn't compatible with her magic. He was interested to know.

"It didn't work," Willow said pouting and opening her eyes.

Harry shrugged, "I'm not surprised."

"What d'ya mean?" Willow asked.

"Your magic's different than mine. It wouldn't be that much of a surprise to learn that my magic was incompatible with your's. Also, given that fact that the spell you just tried isn't learned until after five years of training. I'll try teach some simple spells when we're in a," He looked around the street where quite a few people were in sight, "less obvious place."

Willow's face lit up in a bright smile.

"We're here," announced Buffy as they made their way down a few short steps and down to a small porch area with a brown door at the end. She just walked through the door. "Giles?" she called.

Harry stopped just outside the threshold. "People knock in this world, right?" he asked Willow glancing at the door.

Willow smiled, "Giles is like a father to Buffy. She's just comes and goes as she pleases and he pretends that it annoys him.

"I wish you would knock once in a while Buffy," came an English accented voice from behind the door.

"Come on," Willow said and walked through the door. Harry followed behind her. He walked in a small but nice home. Inside, beside Buff stood a middle aged man with brown hair, slightly gelled up, and wearing wire rimmed glasses. The man, Giles, looked at him curiously.

"Harry, this is Rupert Giles. Giles, this is Harry Potter. He's the one that showed up in the graveyard last week," Buffy said, introducing them both.

Harry held out a hand to the older man. The man shook his hand, "It's, um, it's good to meet you. Thank you for helping Buffy when you did."

Harry shrugged off the thanks, "If I hadn't been there she wouldn't have had her escape blocked."

He looked at Harry levelly, "Perhaps, but you destroyed an entire vampire nest, and that is a good thing for everyone around here."

Harry shrugged again, "It was no problem Mr. Giles."

"Just Giles," the man said with a small smile. He turned towards Buffy. "I'm sure you had a reason for bringing Harry here?" he asked.

"Right!" Buffy exclaimed, as though she'd forgotten her reason. "Harry tells me that there is more than one Hellmouth. Is that true?"

Giles looked caught out by the question, "I, well, um…"

"Giles, you're stalling," Buffy said with a frown.

"Well, I, I admit, that there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland," Buffy opened her mouth to argued more but Giles spoke quickly, cutting her off. "But that Hellmouth has been inactive for more than two centuries. The Watchers Council have numerous agents stationed there in case the Hellmouth should become active again."

Buffy seemed placated slightly, "And what about the other ones?"

Giles looked confused. "I assure you Buffy, there are no other Hellmouths. There are only two."

Buffy turned to Harry and glared at him, "You told me there were seven."

"Seven?" Giles asked in surprised. He pulled off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. "Good heavens no."

"You might not be aware of them, but there are seven," Harry told them. "More than likely they've been sealed to such an extent that you've never been able to find."

"I assure you young man, there are only two Hellmouths. The watchers council has covered the globe and not found the existence of more. The energy a Hellmouth gives off is unmistakeable to those searching for it."

Harry was someone annoyed his information was being shrugged off as false. Having lead the Order of the Phoenix for a year and the DA for six, it wasn't something he was use to anymore, "You've searched 50 miles below London? 80 miles beneath the Vatican City? 100 miles below the Great Pyramid of Giza?"

"I, I… There are truly Hellmouths in those locations?" Giles asked, shocked.

"I've seen four of them. I've yet to see the two in America and the one in Moscow, although, if you've never heard of the others, they've likely been closed in a similar manner to those in my world. They gave off almost no energy and unless you stumbled upon them, you wouldn't find them"

"In, in you world?" Giles asked, confused.

"He's from a different reality Giles," Buffy told the confused man.

"Are you really?" he asked Harry. Harry nodded and he turned back to Buffy and asked in a quiet voice, "Is he evil?"

Harry rolled his eyes; paranoia seemed common around here. "Why do people always assume I'm evil?" Harry asked in an exasperated tone.

Buffy smiled at his annoyance, "No Giles, he's cool."

Giles seemed assured but there was still a wariness in his eyes, "So you're from an alternate reality then? I imagine if Buffy and Willow know this they've shared their story about the vampiric version of Willow that we… er, met, last year?"

"Willow mentioned her double," Harry said. "As well as how you got her back home."

"Yes, well, it was a relatively simple spell and we should have no problems getting you back to your world," Giles assured him.

"Um, Giles?" Willow spoke up. "It might be a _bit _more difficult than last time."

"Oh?" Giles asked, looking at the red head curiously.

Willow looked to Harry, "Tell him about how you got here."

"Do you mind if we sit?" Harry asked.

Giles seemed to realise that he had guests in his home, "Of course, please. Would you like something to drink?"

"You seem like you'd have real tea," Harry stated, looking at him curiously. There was a teapot in the small kitchen behind Giles. It would be much easier if he could get some tea here and not have to Portkey back to Britain to get a proper cup.

Giles looked insulted at the idea that he wouldn't, "I do. I wouldn't be caught dead drinking the swill they sell as tea here."

Harry laughed, "I'll have a cup then."

Giles smiled, looking pleased to have someone else around that appreciated a good cup of tea. "Buffy, Willow?" Giles asked. They shook their head and he moved to his kitchen and began the tea making process. "So tell me Harry, how is it that you came to this version of reality?"

"I'm going to make some educated guesses here, but this is my theory so far." Harry explained his theory about how he fell through the Veil protected Hellmouth and found himself in Sunnydale. Giles had listened quietly, keeping his questions until Harry had stopped speaking.

"…and then I stumbled onto Buffy. I'm reasonably sure I was going into shock around then so I just stood there and watched until the point I realised she was in trouble."

Buffy grumbled something under her breath.

Harry heard her clearly, "Not use to being the damsel in distress?"

She glared at him again, something that seemed to be a common reaction to anything he said. "I didn't need your help," she told him. "I had it handled."

Harry just smiled in a manner that said he didn't believe a word of it; they had already covered this, but he said nothing to her. He turned back to Giles. "I went back to Britain and everything about the magical world I live in was gone, as were the people. I hit a few countries just to verify that everything was different." He took a drink of his tea. "So how good do you think your chances are of getting me back?"

"I'm, unsure to tell you the truth. The fact that you travelled through a magically protected Hellmouth complicates things immensely. I would imagine it would take several weeks of research to ascertain whether or not we can find a method to transport you home. It would most likely help if we could find the Hellmouth, or Veil, in London that you travelled through," Giles told him.

"Then we have a problem," Harry said. "I looked for the one in London and found nothing. I'm not even sure of the exact location but I tried to find it anyway. I'm pretty sure nothing sort of ripping London from the face of the earth will uncover it. I tried to find the one in Egypt as well as the Vatican and couldn't locate them."

Without the magical ministries built on top of or around the Veils, he had no access to them. Locating them would no doubt take years.

Giles frowned, "None the less, I shall see what I can find."

Harry nodded to him, "Thank you."

"Um," Willow chipped in. "How did you get to all those countries? D'ya have a passport with you or something?"

"I've never had one," Harry told her. As if the Dursleys would ever take him on holiday! "I just used magic."

Giles looked at him in shock, "You can travel internationally with magic?"

Harry glanced around the room. Willow and Giles looked fascinated. Buffy just looked confused and bored. "Most people would struggle with it," Harry told them. "But I'm slightly more powerful than most. It's by no means comfortable, but I can manage international trips. I take magic works differently here then?"

"Er, yes, I believe it does. It would take a witch or sorcerer of incredible power to teleport. It is something few can manage safely apart from demons. Is, is teleportation common in your world?"

Harry shrugged, "It's taught to magic users across the world at different ages, but in Europe the age is 17. It's treated like a driving license really."

"Fascinating," Giles muttered. "I have thousands of questions and no idea where to even start."

Harry laughed; he could easily imagine Hermione's reaction to being in a similar situation. "You told me I'll be here for a while so I'll make you a deal. You find a way for me to get home, and I'll answer what I can of your questions."

Giles smiled, delighted. Buffy just rolled her eyes. "So if you're going to be here a while, what you going to do? Are you going to stay in Sunnydale?"

Harry nodded, "It's a good idea as any. I'll have to find somewhere to stay though. Won't that be fun?"

"You have appropriate funds to find something suitable?" Giles asked.

Harry nodded, rubbing the section of his left gauntlet that held his wand, "I'll get by."

Giles nodded, "Well, would you mind me asking a few questions now?"

Harry shrugged, he had nowhere he needed to be, "Sure."

Giles lent forward slightly, "You mentioned before that you hadn't seen a demon before last night, yet that you have vampires in your world. What are they, if not demons?"

"They're magically altered humans. They don't look like the ones I saw here. Apart from slightly elongated canines, they look completely human all the time. When they get turned they keep their own minds yet their… moral compass I suppose, gets tweaked enough that they become dangerous. I suppose that's evolution at work, altering their minds so they won't mind feeding."

Giles nodded, "Indeed. And something else I'm curious about. Buffy mentioned you wore a sort of golden armour when you arrived. I had assumed it was made of demon skin, but I'm obviously wrong in that regard. I see you gloves appear to be similar to what Buffy described. Can you tell me what they're made of?"

Harry smiled mischievously, "It's from the hide of an Egyptian Silvervain."

Giles blinked a few times, in confused. "I'm not quite sure what that is," he said. The look on his face said that he wasn't all that happy about that.

"It's a very rare species of dragon," Harry told them casually as though it was something of common knowledge.

"A dragon?" Willow asked, her voice a pitch higher than he was use to.

"You mean like a real, live, firebreathing flying dragon?" Buffy asked, eyes wide.

Harry nodded, "Exactly like that."

"Good lord," Giles muttered.

"You don't have them here I take it?" Harry asked.

"They've been extinct here for thousands of years. There are very few bones left from them and none of them are in circulation. Are, are they common in your world?"

"Not really," Harry told him. "There are reserves across the world that look after them and keep them hidden from the general population. There are also certain families that have looked after specific breeds for generations."

"Fascinating," Giles muttered. "And other creatures of fantasy? Are there more than just dragons."

Harry nodded, this was a safe topic to discuss, "Sure. There are Unicorns, griffins, basilisks, pixies, gnomes, nymphs, phoenixes, werewolves and vampires." He paused, trying to think of any he might have missed. "Oh, and leprechauns."

"Leprechauns _exist_?!" Buffy and Willow shouted in unison.

Harry looked at them in complete bewilderment. He hadn't felt any magic in the air in the last few seconds to destroy these girl's minds. He looked to Giles in confusion and saw a similar look of shock on the British man's face. "Okay…" Harry muttered slowly. "I mention unicorns, griffins and basilisks, and you're amazed by _leprechauns?"_

Giles snapped out of his amazement slightly quicker than the girls, "Forgive us, but everything you mentioned has existed here at one time or another. Leprechauns have not. Everyone believes them to be fiction."

"What are they like?" Willow asked quickly. "Do they have tiny little jackets and cute Irish accents and hide gold at the end of rainbows?"

Harry blinked in shock at the excitement in her voice. All three of them looked excited. Harry hid a smile; he could have fun with this. Despite everything he was, he was still the son of a Marauder.

He schooled his face into his best surprised expression, "Merlin no!" Harry protested. "What fantasy say about them couldn't be more wrong." He had their rapt attention, "Leprechauns are carnivores and thieves. There was a war about… 700 years ago where half the race of British magic users was wiped out by an army of millions of leprechauns. Most of them were wiped out due to our superior power, but we were hit hard. Ireland was practically decimated."

He shook his head sadly, "Eventually the Leprechaun king surrendered and returned the stolen gold in order to save the life of his son. Over the years their numbers have steadily fallen due to organised hunts, but they are not the mischievous creatures you think they were."

All three of them looked shocked, horrified and awed at the story. Harry tried to suppress his amusement for as long as he could. It only took a few seconds before he couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing. It took his audience of three only a few seconds to realise he was having them on.

"That was mean!" Buffy pointed out, pouting.

"But you have to look at it from my point of view. From there, it was very funny," Harry told her.

"Yes… quite," muttered Giles. He seemed quite put out that he'd fallen for that.

"So they're not real?" Willow asked, clearly disappointed.

Harry took pity on her, "They are real and they're more or less exactly what you'd think they were." Her face lit up. "Although, the rainbow thing is must myth. They can conjure fake gold that disappears after a few hours. I saw a performing group of them for the Irish National team a few years ago."

"Irish national team?" Giles asked.

"Magical sports," Harry said with a dismissive wave. Whilst he missed the thrill of Quidditch, duelling was enough of a replacement. Maybe after he got home he could play a match with whoever survived.

"What were we talking about before the crazy leprechaun's story?" Buffy asked after a moments silence where Harry had just sipped his tea.

Giles blinked, trying to remember, "I'm unsure. All my mind can think of just now is Leprechaun wars."

Harry knew what they'd been talking about. Years of conversations with Dumbledore going off on odd tangents left one with a good memory for odd conversations.

"Ooh!" Willow piped in. "We were talking about dragons and your armour thingy."

"Well I think we covered that." He glanced to Giles, "Questions?"

Harry spent a couple of hours at Giles' answering questions put to him by the Giles, Willow and Buffy before questions started reaching a more personal nature. General questions about his world were fine, but questions about him and his friends and his life were not things he wanted to talk about. Those things were best left where they were; in the past and in another world. They knew nothing about the war, his friends or his family.

He had cited excuses then that he needed to leave. These were somewhat true as he needed somewhere to stay and the thought of staying in the same motel bothered him.

"I wonder if I could speak with you privately for a moment before you leave Harry?" Giles asked. He glanced at the girls for a second before nodding. "I'll escort you out."

Harry walked to the door with the older man. He was very curious. He had seen something in the back of Giles' eye through their talks and he wanted to know what it was. Giles closed the front door and turned to him.

"When Buffy came to see me the day after she met you she mentioned that she hadn't questioned you more and felt that it would have been better for her not to," Giles told him. Harry knew where this was going. "This was most unlike Buffy as she has never let anything like that stop her from trying to get information from someone, or something, that she perceived as threat. I'm most curious about you did to her." There was a power in Giles' voice as he spoke.

"When I spoke to her I was about 20 minutes away from falling into unconsciousness. I had been fighting for my life against numerous people for a little over an hour and I was exhausted. I knew that I'd either have to leave her unconscious where she stood or make her just leave. The second option was best for her considering the vampires that were around. I needed to find somewhere relatively safe to pass out and did what was necessary."

Giles eyed him for a moment before he reluctantly nodded, "I would recommend not trying such an approach on Buffy or her friends again." There was steel in Giles' that Harry respected. He could sense it clearly that this man was like him. This man, like himself, would condemn his own soul in a heartbeat to save his friends and family. It was something Harry had already done. He held no reservations that this man would kill him with little hesitation if he proved to be a threat to those he cared about.

"That's good to know," Harry him.

Giles blinked, slightly confused, "I don't understand."

"Everyone has a dark side in them Mr. Giles and I find it difficult to trust someone without seeing it first. Some people hide it well and others just haven't had to discover it yet. You all but threatened to kill me there and I respect that. I know where I stand with you."

He held out his hand to Giles who shook it, "You're welcome, I think."

Harry shot him a smile, "We English guys have to look after each other, right?" He placed his right hand on his left wrist and Apparated away, leaving an impressed Giles behind.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**AN:** _Yes, Xander hasn't appeared yet, and yes, he is in Sunnydale, but he'll meet Harry later._


	4. Of Dreams, Blood & Souls

**AN:** _Wanted to get this posted before going on holiday. This took a damn long time to write but I'm fairly pleased with it. Let me know what you think and if you're review is long enough I'll get back to you when I return from my hols._

_Tot ziens! Au revoir!_

**OoOoOoOoO**

**Chapter 4 – Of Dreams, Blood & Souls**

With magic, Harry was sure he'd be able to get himself an apartment by nightfall.

He'd wandered around the smallish town for only a short while before he came to a block of apartments just on the outskirts that had newly been built. He easily arranged for a tour. The place was spacious, modern and fully furnished. These things meant nothing to him especially, but all he was looking for was something that magic could easily expand on. That really just meant running electricity and water.

He had been given paperwork then. Having no existence here, he used a combination of compulsion charms and legilimancy to make the woman believe that everything was in order. Several charms were placed on the form that contained nothing but his name. Anyone who looked at it would see that everything was correct and then ignore it. Three hours after finding the place he had the keys and a new home. He placed a couple of spells on the location in order to provide some weak protection until he could do more.

It was dark by now and he'd heard from his talks earlier that Sunnydale was a much different place after dark and that the monsters came out then. Harry's natural curiosity was quickly peaked, as was his desire to see what a real demon looked liked. He would be cautious but he knew he could handle himself. If worst came to worst, he could always Apparate away. From what Giles had told him, there was very little magic in this world that could replicate that and hence, stop it.

He left his apartment and just wandered the streets. Everything was quiet. He walked without meeting anything suspicious for about 20 minutes. Every so often his right eye would flare blue and he'd scan the aura of passing people. Vampires apparently looked normal until they wanted to look threatening. That was when their faces changed. He found nothing.

Eventually, he came to an area where a large population of teenagers seemed to be heading. There were a few cars parked outside and as he got closer he heard music coming from inside. The sign outside said, '_The Bronze'_. It was obviously a club of some sort. He'd never been in one but he knew what they were.

Curious, he walked to the entrance. A large black guy stopped him before he could get inside, "Five dollars."

On the understanding that he needed to pay to get in while having no money to do so, he merely pretended to hand the man the money and planted the suggestion into his mind that he did. It was magic he'd rather not use on innocents and for trivial means, but until he had his footing here, he'd have to make do.

The bouncer nodded him in and he walked inside. He walked in only a few feet before moving his back to wall and watching the scene inside. There was a band playing on a raised stage with a few people dancing in front of it. Further back from the dance floor were a large group of tables that were mostly fully occupied. A bar and a pool table sat a little further back.

The club had a second floor to it. A set of metal staircases led to some walkways. He could see a few tables up there with people leaning on the handrails to get a better look at the band. The place was pretty busy.

He shook his head. This was exactly the type of place that would be far too difficult for a dark wizard to overlook. He could already see the panic a single spell could cause in here. The ease in which it would be to disrupt this was almost absurd. His right shone blue and he scanned the room quickly, making sure no one saw him doing so. He had quickly spotted Buffy and Willow at one of the tables; their aura's easily identifiable.

He mentally marked the suspicious, including one of the guitarists on stage. His aura was of a werewolf, but in similar manner to the vampires he had seen, the werewolf was slightly different. With there being no vampires inside or anything that he could say was an immediate threat he made his way in deeper towards the only people he knew.

"Interesting place you have here," Harry commented idly from behind Buffy. She jumped silently, not having heard him and almost knocked over the plastic blue cup she held. With the charms inlayed into his dragonhide boots, his footsteps didn't make a sound. She swivelled quickly in her chair, ready for a fight.

Harry took a step back and held up his hands in surrender. He knew being hit by her would be bad for him. He had however wanted to see what she'd do if he startled her.

"Don't do that," Buffy told him. "I almost slayed you."

Harry took a seat opposite her and Willow on the small circular table, "You didn't, but it's nice to know you care."

"How'd ya find the Bronze?" Willow asked.

"I was wandering the streets looking for demons and everyone seemed to be coming here."

"You were looking for demons?" Buffy asked in near disbelief.

"I was bored and I was curious. Usually a bad combination with me, but I'm treating this world as a holiday until I get home."

"So on your holiday's looking for demons is what sounds like a good idea to you?" Buffy asked challengingly.

"I've faced less interesting things on normal days, so yeah, demon hunting sounds interesting."

"You're a bit weird, aren't ya?" Willow asked brightly, seemingly quite pleased with it.

Harry grinned at her, "You have no idea." He looked back up to the stage where the band was still playing. "Who's the guitar player?" Harry asked.

Willow's face lit up in a huge smile. "That's Oz. He's my boyfriend. I'm dating a musician." She looked very pleased with the last bit. She looked over at her boyfriend fondly, "Isn't he good?"

Harry shrugged. "I have no idea," he answered truthfully. "Can't say I listen to much music."

"Why the interest in him then?" Buffy asked, her tone suspicious.

Harry looked at the two girls for a moment, judging on whether they knew or not. Buffy's suspicious look pointed towards the fact that they, or at least she, knew about Oz's supernatural nature. "You already know he's a werewolf," Harry stated, trusting his gut instinct. That instinct was one of the reasons he was still alive today.

Buffy tensed and Willow looked worried. "You don't have anything against werewolves do you?" she asked. He was pleased that they hadn't just tried to deny it.

"I'm good friends with a few werewolves. If they keep to themselves during a full moon, I have no problems with them." That was something of small lie, but a recent transition in his life had altered his state of mind slightly. He was still working on suppressing it.

"How did you know?" Buffy asked, eyeing him curiously.

"The same way I know there are no vampires or demons in here, or anything else overly suspicious other than your boyfriend and us; I can see."

"You can see?" Buffy asked mockingly. "And we're what, blind?"

"See? See what?" Willow asked.

Harry was pleased Willow understood he meant something else. It most likely came from whatever magic knowledge she had. "Auras," Harry told her.

Her eyes widened as she understood, "You can see auras?"

"Aura? What's an aura?" Buffy asked in confusion.

"Aura's are like a luminous radiation that a person emits. Each colour is meant to signify something different, like emotional states."

"So it makes people shiny?" Buffy asked, seeking clarification.

Harry laughed at what he decided was the best description of what an aura was that he'd ever heard. "Yes Buffy," he responded dryly. "It makes people shiny." He turned to Willow, "I can't see emotions or how people feel, I suppose that's never been my speciality. I can see power and what people are beneath their masks."

"Ooh, what does my aura look like?" Willow asked excitedly and posed for him.

He discreetly pulled out his wand and cast a notice-me-not charm around the immediate area. Having only had a quick look at her before, his right iris began to glow blue. The two girls tensed for the slightest moment. Harry looked her up and down, "Your powerful, I know that much. There's a mirage of colours that rise up from the ground and into you. I'd imagine that was your magic and the earth was your source. It's nothing I've ever seen before. It's quite beautiful though."

The colours that surrounded her and inhabited her swirled and combined and changed in moments. It was a mesmerizing effect.

"What about me?" Buffy asked, feeling left out.

Harry turned his attention towards her. "Your aura is gold and fully confined to your body. It pulses in repeating manner in what I'm sure is in time with your heartbeat. It's… hypnotising." His eye returned to its normal green and he removed the charm around the table. He glanced up to the band in the pretence of watching them. He had seen more in Buffy's aura this time but felt better not to mention it out loud. It had nothing to do with her personality or who she was in her mind, her heart was dark. At a closer look he could see an inherent darkness in her power. She struck him as the type that would worry incessantly about that little detail. A few years ago the same thing would have worried him.

He hated keeping information from people like Dumbledore had done to him for years, but he understood that it was one of the responsibilities of a leader to keep back some information. He was by no means the leader of their Slayer group, hell, he wasn't even a member, he couldn't help but quickly fall back into his role, and natural instinct, as the one in charge.

It wasn't something he liked, but he lived with it. It kept others alive.

"Gold is good right?" Buffy asked.

Harry shrugged, "Typically, but I've never seen an aura similar to yours, so I'll have to see." Harry remembered back to earlier that day when the power that Buffy had was discussed.

_(Flashback)_

"_So tell me," Harry said. "What exactly is a Slayer?"_

"_What, what do you know so far?" Giles asked._

"_That she has enhanced strength and speed. That's she's meant to be the one person, and only person, to fight the darkness." He didn't mention just how stupid that sounded to him._

"_That is essentially correct," Giles told him. "The origin of the first Slayer and how she came about her powers are unknown, but there is a lot we do know. Basically, there will always be a slayer. When one Slayer dies another is chosen."_

"_How?" Harry interrupted. "Do you just chose a girl or do they have to be… do they have to have special attributes before they're chosen."_

"_No one really knows how," Buffy told him. "It's just… well, random."_

"_Buffy is essentially correct," Giles told him. "At any given point in the world there are thousands of potential Slayer's, but only one will be… active… at a time. The Watcher's council have methods of tracking down some of these girls, usually the most likely to be chosen, but most remain unknown until the moment that they are chosen."_

"_Sorry, Watcher's council? Buffy mentioned that before."_

_Giles nodded, "Every Slayer is assigned a Watcher in order to train them and guide them. They hold the most comprehensive knowledge of demonology in the known world."_

"_And you're Buffy's Watcher?" Harry guessed._

"_Yes, uh, well," Giles stuttered out looking uncomfortable._

"_He was fired," Buffy told him. "The Council are a bunch of grumpy old stiffs and they've never really liked me."_

"_What's not to like?" Harry said with a grin. His mind created an image of what this Watchers Council was and he had the feeling that this worlds Council was very similar to the Wizengamot from his world. "I think I understand. There was a group like that back in my world. They weren't especially fond of me. So, a Slayer is quicker than most and faster as well?" Harry asked, looking between Buffy and Giles._

"_Yes, essentially," Giles told him. "They've also been known to have prophetic visions in times of distress and are able to sense demons nearby."_

_Something clicked in his mind as to why Buffy had decided to fight several vampires over him during their first meeting. She had sensed he was something different. He turned to her, "That's why you hesitated before fighting those vampires? You sensed I was something else."_

_Buffy nodded, "My Slayer-sense wigged out when I saw you and saw the vamps as the lesser option."_

_(End Flashback)_

"So did ya find a motel to stay at?" Willow asked.

"I've rented a flat," Harry told her. "One of the new ones at the edge of town."

"How?" Buffy asked surprised. "You don't even exist in this world. How did you get references and… stuff?"

"Magic accomplishes things easily when you have no other choice. I have a feeling that I'm going to be here for a while and I'd rather set up base in something nicer. It should make it easier to protect."

"Ooh! When you do that can I watch? I know some home protection spells but I'd like to learn more."

Harry surveyed her closely, "You can watch but I recommend not practising this stuff. First of all, you're probably not capable of it, but if something does happen it's likely to reduce the immediate area around you to ash."

"That sounds bit different than the protective magic I've used before," Willow told him, her voice quieter.

"My magic is different. You tried that spell earlier but that wouldn't have done too much damage. The way I'll protect my home will."

"Can you tell me what you'll do?" Willow asked eagerly.

"I'll show you tomorrow," Harry told her. He hoped she had enough common sense not to emulate him. The way she'd attempted the Sonorous charm yesterday told him that she had little knowledge on how dangerous magic truly was when used in appropriately. He'd have to keep an eye on this girl. If she ever found some of his... rarer books that he had in his trunk...

"Hey look!" Willow said excitedly, looking to her right. "Parker's here."

"Yup," Buffy responded.

"You're not looking?" Willow asked in obvious surprise. She glanced back over to a boy near the pool table. "He looks really cute in green."

Harry ignored the girl talk and turned around to face the band. The werewolf, Willow's boyfriend, he couldn't remember his name, looked at him curiously. The band played a final note and the crowd applauded. He clapped a few times, more out of instinct than because he'd enjoyed listening to the band. He hadn't being paying much attention.

Willows boyfriend jumped down from the stage and walked over to her. "Hey," he greeted her with a casual smile. "You ready to load up and go?" Willow beamed at him. Willow's boyfriend glanced towards him and then back to Willow.

"Oh!" she said. "Oz, this is Harry. Harry, Oz." She looked to her boyfriend. "He's Buffy's robed saviour," she told him. She continued in a conspiratorial whisper, "The one with the gorgeous green eyes."

Buffy looked at her friend in annoyance which caused Willow to smile. Harry just rolled his eyes. How often did people comment about his eyes? Anyone who had even met Lily had at least mentioned how similar his eyes were and apparently girls thought they were 'gorgeous'. People were weird.

"Hey," Oz said to him.

"Hey," Harry greet backed. He didn't offer his hand as the gauntlets he wore would very likely do damage to the redheaded werewolf. The dragon the hide came from was called a 'Silvervain' for a reason after all.

"We're almost ready to go," Willow told Oz, ignoring the look Buffy was giving her. "Buffy's looking at Parker." She glanced at a ceiling mirror that Buffy had likely been watching him from "Who it turns out has a reflection, so big plus there!" Still not completely knowledgeable about vampires in this world Harry assumed the 'no reflection' thing was similar here. "Buffy's having lusty wrong feelings."

"No I'm not," Buff protested.

"No, you're not," Willow agreed, a look of surprised understanding on her face if Harry were to guess.

Buffy sighed and slumped in her seat slightly, "Oh I so am."

"No," Willow said again. "Uh, they're not wrong feelings cause you're free, you're both grown-ups." She looked at Buffy oddly, "You are free, right?"

Before Buffy could respond Parker came up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder before sprouting a line or so about outside not being safe.

Buffy and Parker left the Bronze leaving Harry with Willow and Oz. Willow looked at him, "Well, I'm gonna help Oz with his things. I'll see you about the magic stuff tomorrow?"

Harry nodded and the he was left by himself. Now that the band had finished a few people were beginning to leave while others remained where they were, with their drinks or by the pool table.

He wondered what was happening back home. Had there been a big party? Had the Death Eater's even been defeated? The Order had been winning when he'd left the atrium on his lone crusade to take Voldemort down. Were they alright now? He was curious, though apprehensive as to how he would be seen back there now. He truly hoped that they didn't build him a statue or a monument.

Knowing the people back in his world, it was as likely as it was unlikely. The politicians and the followers would want something to 'honour' him. His friends and those who knew him would likely argue against it. He wasn't sure who would succeed. Knowing that this was a possibility, he left a note in his will for the Weasley Twins that said they had free reign to do what they wanted should one be built.

How were his friends doing? Both Ron and Hermione were likely alright. Ron would have regrouped with Remus after he had entered the Veil room and Hermione hadn't gone on the mission due to a recent injury.

He closed his eyes and did what he could to clear his mind. Occlumency had never been something that he'd mastered, but he was good enough to block an attack for a short while until he could fight back with his wand. He tried clearing his mind of thoughts about home. It wouldn't do to dwell on them. He'd get home eventually and he could think about his friends then.

With his mind slightly more at ease he pushed himself of his chair, scanned the room once more with his aura sight to look for threats or demons, and walked outside. He stood just outside the exit and looked around, thinking about where to go. He was by no means tired and he still wanted to find a demon; vampires and werewolves didn't count as he had similar back home. He wanted to see a proper demon.

A flash of movement to his right caught his attention. He saw a blonde girl, one that wasn't Buffy, lunge forward and bring her mouth to the neck of the girl in front of her. Harry's eye flashed blue and he recognised her as a vampire. His wand was in his hand in a flash and he summoned the blonde vampire a few feet towards him, not willing to use a spell that would hurt the girl he now recognised was Willow.

The blonde squeaked in fright as she was suddenly pulled backwards. With a hard flick of his wand he banished the vampire to his right, hard. She hit the stone wall of the Bronze with enough force to leave a sizeable crack before she turned to dust. It was an overly forceful way of dealing with a vampire, but it was easier than firing a cutter or a flame spell too close to an innocent.

He quickly walked towards Willow. Oz rushed towards her, a microphone stand in his hand ready to be used as a weapon. He looked surprised for a moment at how the vampire had vanished before he moved to hug Willow. The girl looked startled and was holding her hand to her neck where the vampire had bitten her.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked as he neared her.

Willow looked over to him with a small smile, "Mhmm. Just a bit shaky is all. I'll be fine." She looked a little pale from what he could see, even for a red head and was leaning on her boyfriend. A small trickle of blood ran down her neck. She was still conscious and seemed coherent so she hadn't lost too much blood.

"I could probably fix that for you," Harry offered with a nod to her neck. "Remove the scar as well."

"Really?" Willow asked, her eyes now excited. "With magic?"

Harry chuckled slightly, "With magic."

Willow removed her hand from her neck letting Harry see the two puncture marks. Harry drew his wand upward but a hand on his arm stopped him. He looked over to Oz.

"This won't hurt her?" he asked. He clearly cared a lot for her.

Harry shook his head, "The area that's being healed will feel warm and tingly for a short moment, but that's it." Oz nodded and moved his arm back. Harry held his wand an inch from the teeth marks and silently cast the spell while trying not to smile at Willow trying desperately to see her own neck and what was happening. His wand tip shone yellow for a moment as the two marks closed leaving no evidence of the bite wound.

For a finish he conjured a small square mirror and passed it to her so she could see it for herself. "Wow," she muttered, examining it. "Your magic is really awesome."

Harry shrugged; the spell had only been a simple one, "Glad I could help."

"Thanks man," Oz said with a nod. Harry nodded back.

"So you're alright?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine," Willow said again.

Satisfied enough Harry didn't ask again, "Well, I'll be going then." He moved to turn around before stopping. "What parts of this town should I avoid?" he asked, curious about where he could find demons. He hoped phrasing it the way he did would get him an answer.

"Why?" Willow asked with a cute frown, clearly having an idea of what he wanted.

"I'm curious," he told her.

"So you can go demon hunting?" Willow asked, frown still in place. Harry just tilted his head slightly and watched her. She'd either tell him or she wouldn't; he had a feeling nothing he could say would sway her mind. She huffed out a breath, "If you really want to find demons, they like graveyards."

Harry smiled at her, "Thanks."

He turned and left the two red-heads by themselves. "Want to explain him to me?" Oz asked his girlfriend curiously. Harry Apparated away.

**OoOoOoOoO**

_Harry looked around blearily. The whole area was surrounded in a thick fog that shrouded everything around him. He could see his own body and bits of the ground at his feet, but little else. Tarmac. He drew his wand and cast a spell to dispel the fog but nothing happened. He flicked his wand to cast a light charm but again, nothing happened. Worried and unsure what to do Harry slowly made his way forward._

_A loud crackling noise sounded from above; similar to thunder yet so very different. He looked up into the fog covered sky as a small point in the air began to glow blue. As though someone was ripping the sky apart with their bare hands, the light grew larger and larger until it was several dozen meters wide. Lightning shot from the blue glow... a portal... in the sky. He couldn't see it, but he could hear the energy crashing into the ground._

_He didn't know what to do. His magic didn't appear to work, he couldn't see anything and he had no idea what was happening. On instinct he walked closer to the epicentre of the large blue rip in the sky. As he neared it the fog beside it began to vanish, showing him what was around it._

_A tall and unsteady metal structure stood next to it. From what Harry could see it had no practical purpose. It was just there, right beside the portal. He looked at it carefully, unsure why that it was the only thing other than portal he could see._

_Movement at the top of the metal tower caught his attention. He saw the silhouette of someone near the top, but other than knowing they had long hair Harry could see nothing else. He felt fear and desperation. He didn't know what was happening but he knew he needed to get up there. Now. He needed to do... something... to the person at the top. Was it their fault this was happening? Did he need to kill whoever it was? Was she an innocent? Did she need saved?_

_Before he realised what was happening he was running. Running as fast as he could. The tower remained just as far away. It was like running on a treadmill, he just couldn't get close. He tried Apparating, even though he knew his magic wasn't working._

_A feeling like anything he'd ever felt flashed through his body and he the next thing he knew was that he was on top of the tower, facing towards the girl. He hadn't Apparated. It hadn't felt remotely similar. He looked at the girl before him. Even though he was closer now he couldn't make out any details about her. She was just a black silhouette in front of the glowing blue rip and the fog. "Who are you?!" Harry shouted over the noise of the portal._

_The figure took a step back._

"_What's going on?!" Harry shouted, something was really wrong here._

"_Help me Harry!" a female voice shouted. The tower shook and she slipped, tumbling off the metal structure. Her screams broke his heart._

"_Nooo!" he shouted. He ran towards the edge._

Harry sat up quickly in bed, wand drawn, wildly scanning for any sign of movement. He was breathing heavily, drenched with sweat. He saw no movement in his room and heard nothing more than his laboured breathing. Seeing that there was no danger he closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. It took a minute but his heart rate and breathing was soon receding to normal levels. He dropped his wand on his bed sheets and leaned forward, covering his sweating face in his hands.

'_What the hell?'_ Harry thought to himself. '_What the hell was that?'_ Looking up from his hands he glanced at his watch.

5 am.

He'd managed to get five hours sleep. That was pretty good given his usual sleeping patterns. He usually never slept for more than three or four hours a night these days. That odd dream must have kept him asleep longer. He pushed himself out of bed, his body feeling stiff and painful despite having barely a mark on it.

'_What the hell was that?'_ he thought again as he made his way through to his shower. He turned the water on as hot as it got and stepped in; clenching his teeth slightly as the water lightly scolded him. He closed his eyes, placed both hands palm flat again the wall and dropped his head, letting the hot water try and relax his body.

He thought about the dream again. Dream... or was it a vision? He thought about the previous night. After banishing the blonde female vampire into a wall he explored Sunnydale's graveyard, or at two of them at the least. It had been disappointing in a sense. While he had found two vampires, he hadn't seen any proper demons. He had tried to speak with the vampires but they'd just attacked him on sight. He used his imagination when dealing with the vampires and explored the town a bit more. He had arrived back at the rented flat just before midnight and fallen asleep soon after coming in.

Then he'd had his dream.

His vision.

Now that he thought about it, now that his mind was clearer he recognised something. He'd had that vision before. It had never been that clear though, not by a long shot. From the first night that he became the wielder of the Elder Wand he'd been dreaming of that glowing blue portal, but that had been all he'd ever seen. He hadn't been able to move, let around try cast spells. He had never seen the metal tower and he had never seen the girl before.

The girl that had slipped and fallen to her death.

He didn't know why, but the feeling he had when that girl had died mirrored exactly how he felt when Sirius had fallen through the Veil years ago. If that had been a vision, if that girl was real, who was she? Why did he care enough about her to feel so devastated at losing her? It made him highly uneasy.

'_Why was the vision so clear?'_ he asked himself. Was it because he was back in Sunnydale? It was his first night sleeping here - had that caused it? Was the vision clearer because he was in this dimension or would it have become clearer anyway, no matter where he was?

His eyes snapped open. Was he meant to be in this dimension? Was it preordained that he would arrive here? He growled slightly. If there was a fucking prophecy talking about this he was going to do some serious damage. There was no way he could have been sucked straight into another destiny seconds after completing one destiny. He wasn't that unlucky.

Was he?

His eyes narrowed as he glared at the tiles on the bathroom wall.

Yeah, he was that unlucky.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Not able to sleep any longer Harry placed his shrunken trunk in the corner of his room and tapped it with his wand. The trunk resized itself in a couple of second. Seven rune marks rested along the top of the lid. With the slightest bit of wandless magic Harry made a small cut on his left index finger and allowed a drop of blood to fall on the first rune. It shone ever so slightly and a lock clicked.

Blood was important in all magic and willingly given blood from a powerful creature or wizard was very magical. With this method of opening his trunk to retrieve his possessions only he could get do so. If his blood was taken forcefully whoever tried to open the trunk would be in for a nasty shock.

He opened the trunks lid revealing the interior of a normal trunk. It was exactly the size and shape it should be for a normal non-magical trunk. This 'compartment', the trunk's first, was filled with clothes. Having travelled the world in search of ways to beat Voldemort he had rarely stayed for long in one place. Because of that he carried every possession he owned with him at all times.

No though, he was going to be here for a while. Likely at any rate. He pulled his clothes from the trunk and placed them in cupboards and wardrobes before pulling on his dragonhide underclothes, a white t-shirt and pair of shorts. He closed the trunks lid, making sure it was sealed properly before going outside for run.

It had been something he'd done for five years now, ever since he returned to the Dursley's for summer. His fight in the Department of Mysteries had shown him that while he wasn't unfit, running through the DoM for however long it had been was physically exhausting. After losing Sirius due to carelessness, he planned to do everything in his power to learn more and to become more powerful. He was in a war and he didn't want to lose anyone else.

The weather outside was pleasant without being too hot like yesterday was. Given the fact that it wasn't even 6am yet he shouldn't have been surprised. The town wasn't particularly large and he had no idea of what routes there were or even if there was a place to run. Harry chose to just run. He ran to where he had tested the wardline the day before and just kept running, keeping a steady pace. He past nothing of real interest as he ran, just endless desert and dusty roads.

He had run through deserts like this before during his travels so this wasn't anything new to him. None the less, he pushed himself, doing what he could to try and forget what he saw during his sleep. He had run for almost an hour before his body couldn't take anymore. Having no desire to run back the way he'd came he Apparate home and showered once again.

Shower finished, Harry picked a book from his trunk and sat down to read, having very little else to do. He could begin casting protections spells on his rented home, but that took a lot out of him. He'd cast the protections before sleeping tonight, whether Willow came round to watch or not.

He sat and read until lunch time. Some of the books he had, quite a few actually, had belonged to Dumbledore's private library and they were endlessly interesting and incredibly difficult to understand at times. He was determined to learn all he could though. When Dumbledore fought it was very different than Harry and Voldemort.

While Harry preferred sheer power, destruction and physical quickness, Voldemort obscure and dark beyond imagination, Dumbledore preferred finesse. He duelled with transfiguration and conjuration as his weapon and did so in an awe inspiring manner. That was something Harry had recently been trying to emulate; relying on transfiguration and conjuration. Pure power was all well and good – very Gryffindor like – but some situations called for more.

His fight with the blonde vampire that attacked Willow had been a good example of just how he preferred to fight. He wasn't sure what Dumbledore would have done in the situation.

By the time he became hungry he had filled out a few pages in a notebook, doing what he could to simplify the complex instructions in the book. He had a dozen or so notebooks now that he kept spells in and the details of his other projects. It was something he found very useful when learning by non-practical means.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Harry's day proceeded quietly. Quietly for him at any rate. Having no money other than a couple of pounds, he had carefully and inconspicuously stolen a few dollar bills from passersby. Not much from each person, but enough that by the end of the afternoon he had $60 in a combination of $5, $10 and $20 notes. Not able to live on that for long Harry had cast a replication charm on each note so that he had several dozen of each. With enough power and the Elder Wand the conjured money was all but permanent. They would likely fade in a twenty years or so, but the chance of them surviving that long were low.

He hoped no one noticed that the serial numbers on the notes of the same value were the same. That would cause problems.

For the rest of the day he walked around Sunnydale, randomly scanning individual people to see if they were really who they said they were. Again, it had been reasonable disappointing not to find anything amiss or odd, but maybe he just wasn't looking in the right places.

**OoOoOoOoO**

It was around 7pm that a knock on his door distracted him from his studies. He placed _'The Elegance of Battle – The Transfigurists Bible'_ down on the coffee table in his lounge. That book had been one of Dumbledore's favourites as far as he could tell. The old man had a habit of writing his own notes to go with each chapter. Several theories in each book, especially the transfiguration books, had been completely disproved in his loopy script. It made fascinating books all that more fascinating.

He stood and looked towards the door wondering who it was. His first thought would have been Willow, but even though she knew where in the town his flat was, she didn't know which apartment was his. His eye shone blue as he examined the door. Satisfied for the moment he opened the door to find Willow and Giles at his doorway. "Come in," Harry said, stepping away from the door. He hadn't expected Willow to turn up, hell he hadn't really invited her, but it didn't bother him.

"Thank you," Giles said as he walked. "Although, for future reference, Sunnydale rule number one is to never verbally invite into your home. Vampires are unable to enter unless they have permission."

"Ok," Harry said. "That's different from what I've heard before, but new dimension, new rules."

Willow shut the door behind her. "Hi Harry," Willow said with a smile. Her neck was clear of any marks.

"How are you after last night?" Harry asked. She was clearly fine, but it didn't hurt ask.

Her smile widened further, "Fine! Felt a bit woosy, 'cause of the blood draining, but I'm fine now."

Harry smiled at her," Good."

"Yes, uh, thank you for your timely save of Willow last night. Harmony, the vampire that attacked her, was always something of a bully, and uh, not a particularly intelligent one. Sunnydale is better off without her here."

"You knew her?" Harry asked Willow in surprise. That had to be quite odd seeing someone you knew become a vampire.

"She was in my year when we were at High School. We all thought she died at Graduation."

"Ah, ok," Harry said. She apparently hadn't liked the girl that much, although with this girl, that was a difficult conclusion to come to. He looked over at Giles and Willow. "I'd offer you something to eat or drink, but I don't exactly have anything yet."

"Um, that's quite alright," Giles assured him.

Harry nodded and moved further into the room. "Willow's here to see me perform some magic," Harry said to the small group. "Are you here for the same reason?"

"I, yes, I am," Giles told him. "Your magic, as far as I've heard, is remarkably different to any I've seen before and I admit I find myself quite fascinated."

Harry nodded; Hermione would be the same here. Harry saw the slight steel behind his eyes like he had seen during their first meeting. It didn't take a genius to work what it meant given the context of the situation. "And you don't trust me with Willow," Harry remarked casually, paying close attention to Giles' eyes.

The flicker he saw in them prove him right. He didn't blame the man, but he was curious to know when he'd earn their trust. His interaction hadn't been needed, he had now saved two lives from their group.

"Giles?" Willow asked.

Giles looked down at the smaller girl, "He may have saved yourself and Buffy during his stay here but we still know little about him."

Harry nodded, accepting that answer. He had been very sparse with details about him during their talk yesterday. He talked about the world he lived in, the magic world and what type of magic was possible, but no real details about his life. All they really knew about him was his name and that he didn't have a girlfriend.

"Well, I suppose," Willow agreed.

Harry clapped his hands together, "Now that's settled I'll get started. You can ask questions while I work, but startling me would be... bad." He walked out of the room and into his bedroom to retrieve one of his notebooks. Having been the high priority target during the 'Pureblood War' and moving around the country and the world, Harry was now quite adapt at protecting where he stayed. The notebook he held was the third fullest of his dozen books. He also picked up a potion vial

After spending days, months and years duelling with the best in the world having projects that required no physical effort had been fantastic while resting his sore body.

He walked back into the room and both occupants immediately eyed the book. It was a bit worn out, despite being charmed heavily enough to survive taking a lot of damage. The fact that he had a book confused them slightly.

"Um, the book?" Giles asked.

"One of my journals," Harry told the man as he flipped through several pages to find the protections he wanted. '_Fidelius? Over the top. Aversion? No, no one to avert. Unplotable? Would only confuse people. Anti-Apparition and Porkey? Later perhaps. Ah ha, Blood.'_

He looked back up at his guests. They both looked a bit suspicious. "Forgive me," Giles asked and Harry could hear the suppressed harshness. "But if you came from an alternate reality and you were in a duel at the time, how is it that you have a journal with you?"

Harry blink in confusion before realising why that would seem suspicious. If he'd been brought here by unsuspecting means, why did he have things with him? A physical demonstration would likely be needed here. "Simple really," Harry told them. He went to draw his want but stopped. "A demonstration to appease you?" Harry asked.

Giles nodded slowly and Harry drew his wand, pointed it at the couch to his left and cast a shrinking spell. The couch got progressively smaller until it could have easily fit inside a doll house. Harry watched the look of awe on their faces as the couch shrunk and smiled. "I had everything, apart from money, that I owned on me at the time I fell through the Veil. Handy really, but in no way planned."

"If I can ask, why carry everything with you? Why not leave what you owned in a secure place?" Giles asked curiously. With a slight twist of his wand Harry resized the couch that Willow was closely investigating. She jumped in surprise as it quickly resized.

"I did for a while," Harry told him. Skimming through the chapter he'd written on Blood Wards. "But the first rule about creating wards... protection spells... is that someone will always be able to find a way though them. Magic isn't infallible and relying on it to protect you is a sure-fire way to die in an untimely manner."

Harry continued flicking through the journal until he found the section he wanted. His interest in Blood Wards had come about during his sixth year at Hogwarts. After learning that blood wards protect his relatives' home he had found what he could on the subject in order to understand them better. He found what he wanted and kept reading and reading until he knew more about Blood Wards than most ever learned. They were highly useful and knowledge of them was limited, meaning they provided a heightened security level. As any blood related magic was typically seen as dark magic, he kept his interest in it as quiet as he could.

"Ok," Harry said. "I'll try explaining what I'm doing as I do it." He quickly glanced through a few pages, skimming the text. Satisfied, he past the book to Giles and the potion vial to Willow before he moved over to the door to his apartment. He drew his wand again and cast a numbing charm on his left palm before cutting into it deeply. He cupped his hand the best he could as the blood pooled his palm.

He could see Giles and Willow out of the corner of his eye looking in fascination. "What I'm going to set up are Blood Wards; protections specifically keyed into me. What makes this type of magic so effective is that, as using blood from a magic user, it's reinforced as long as whoever cast it is still alive." He dipped the tip of his wand into the blood in his palm and began to draw protection runes on the door while casting in Latin. Harry focused on the door for five minutes before moving to from each corner of his apartment, drawing more and more runes. He continued to explain what he was doing to Giles and Willow as he worked.

By the time he had finished with runes his hand had been bleeding strongly for quite some time and he was beginning to feel a bit weak. Blood trailed the gray carpet, marking where he had been in the room. Thankfully, blood was easy to get out of carpet with magic.

Twenty minutes after he had begun he moved to the centre of the room, an area already decorated with runes. Wand point straight down towards the runes Harry spoke the final incantation, "_Adsero adaugesco cello consanguinitus!_" All the runes around the room began to glow brightly, illuminating the already bright room. Harry felt the blood painted on the walls begin to absorb his magic. That, along with the blood loss dropped him to one knee, unable to stand. This was taking more effort than it should. He kept his mind focused and continued.

Another reason blood wards were so out of practice in the magical world was that they required a lot of strength to cast properly. Weak magic users had been killed by their attempts to try a similar protection net. Even those of above average power would spend several days unconscious emulating this magic. If someone was too weak to perform blood magic, magic would take control and drain them of their life force until the person was dead or the spell complete.

The runic symbols on the walls and floor began to be absorbed, leaving only a bloody trail along the floor. After a minute the spell released its effects on Harry and he slumped forward using his left hand to support himself. His magic, knowing the spell had been cast finally allowed the wound on his hand to clot.

Willow and Giles moved over to him, looking concerned. "Are you ok?" Willow asked.

Harry nodded, "Doing that takes a lot of magic and adding in the blood loss doesn't help. Pass me that vial."

Willow handed him the crystal vial he'd given her earlier and downed the contents. "Was that a potion?" Willow asked, her eyes sparkling.

Harry nodded, "Blood replenisher. I have a habit of getting injured and so I keep a few of them on me at all times." The potion kicked in quickly and he felt the dizziness associate with blood loss vanish. His magic was still on the weak side, but it wasn't enough that he would be worried to go outside. It didn't stop the tiredness though.

"That was quite remarkable," Giles commented. "It seemed, um, quite similar to some of the magic practiced in this, er, universe as opposed to the other magic you use."

Harry nodded from his place on the floor; he saw no quick need to get up. "Warding is like that," Harry told the man, recalling how magic was mainly used in ritual form here. He was only familiar with one type and that was wards; even then he didn't know more than he needed to.

"So these wards, what exactly will they do? You weren't particularly clear on that matter," Giles asked.

Harry stifled a yawn, "The main part of the wards protects this home from people wanting to harm me or track me. I'm not entirely sure how well it will work on demons, but it kept the vampires from home away from me. It will prevent unauthorised entry based on my desires." He yawned, the magic having taken more out of him than he thought. Maybe it was because he was so close to an unrestrained Hellmouth? Maybe it was the witch that drew her power in from her surroundings?

His eye flashed blue, startling Giles who hadn't seen it happen before. "Relax Giles," Willow chided. "He can see auras." She turned to Harry, "What'ya looking for?"

A glanced at her shower the smallest amount of blood red energy being drawn into her from the surrounding room that was now bathed in ward magic. A quick glance at Giles showed he too was drawing in a small amount – much smaller than Willow – from the room. "Doing that drained me more than I thought. I checked the room to see if the spell had worked and I checked each of you to see if that had caused the problem."

"And, uh, what did you find?" Giles asked.

"Willow seems to have absorbed some of the magic from the room as it was being cast. That in turn took more out of me to complete the spell." He yawned again, "You took a small amount of the magic as well, but barely noticeable." He glanced at Willow, "I don't think I'll be trying that again with you in the same room."

Willow looked quite stricken that she was partially responsible for his condition, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

Harry waved off her protests, "No damage was done and I've always preferred practical learning over theoretical, even if it roughs me up a bit."

"Shall we leave you to rest?" Giles asked.

Harry pushed himself to his feet, wincing as he pressed his left hand to the ground; apparently the numbing charm had worn off. "A good idea," Harry said.

"Very well. Oh, and thank you for showing us that. Seeing the type of magic you wield is truly an honour, especially if what you and I suspect about the dimensional differences in this universe are true."

"Oh?" Harry asked, curious despite his fatigue.

"I have a few books that I feel might answer some questions. I hadn't quite gotten around to reading them yet though. If you stop by my home tomorrow, I'll show you what I find."

"Research?" Willow asked excitedly.

Giles nodded, "Yes and I could use your help looking through the books."

Willow nodded with a happy smile on her face, "Sure Giles. I'll call the gang and we'll meet you at your place."

"Good." He turned to Harry. "I'll see you sometime in the morning I imagine?"

Harry nodded, "I'll see you then."

"Bye Harry," Willow said with a smile. Harry nodded and saw them to his door.

OoOoOoOoO

Due to his use of magic the previous night Harry managed to sleep for a little under six hours. The nightmares hadn't been that bad, but once again he'd woken to the same vision he had the night before. First he all he saw was fog, then the tower and then the girl. It definitely meant something – what it meant was the question. After he woke he repeated his run from the day before, running the same path that he had, only taking it slightly easier.

After his run he found a store that sold sunglasses and with his newly replicated money bought a pair. He knew he was never going to get use to this sun. Not knowing what time to go to Giles, he just settled for wandering the town again. It really was disturbingly odd. So far he had counted 43 churches. Forty three! There was no need for that many. Perhaps it was another symptom of living on a Hellmouth? Even more disturbing was that the small town had twelve graveyards. It wasn't as though they were small either. How many people died in this town a year? Why did people even live here? The people in this town had to be in complete denial, be idiots, or be being manipulated by the dome ward overhead. He'd tried to determine what it did one more time but was still coming up short. Maybe Giles would know.

His thoughts on the odd town were cut off as his aura scan of people he passed picked up something new. With a pair of stylish sunglasses on his face he could keep the sight on at a low level at all times. With the amount of magic this town was saturated in, the low setting only allowed him to see moving auras. He turned off the sight and watched the man walk purposefully and cockily across the park. His hair was bleached blonde, the same colour as a Malfoy's and sleeked back. He wore dark clothes, including an ankle length black leather jacket that looked as though it had seen better days.

He looked so completely out of place that Harry would have been curious about him even if he couldn't see his aura. What the aura did show him was that he was a vampire. That wasn't the odd thing though. He also had a green overlapping aura that covered his entire body. The most curious thing was that the vampire was outside, during the day, walking in the sun. Knowing that this likely wasn't a good thing Harry intervened. He drew his wand, and after checking that no one else was around, cast an immobilising charm on the blonde vampire. It stopped mid step giving Harry a chance to walk over to it. He stood in front of the immobilized vampire. He looked carefully into its eyes. Anger, rage and frustration were clear in its eyes, but he could also see the tiniest amount of fear.

He pulled off his sunglasses and scanned the vampire with his sight again. On the middle finger of its right hand it wore a gold ring with a green gem that was giving off a clear magical signature that was likely responsible for the green aura and the apparent immunity to sunlight. An interesting item and not something his world had access to.

Curious to know what the ring was he partially removed the spell he cast, allowing the vampire the ability to move its head. "What the bloody hell do you think your doing?!" the vampire snarled the moment it could speak.

Harry was slightly taken by surprise at the vampire's obvious English accent. "I was curious," Harry told the vampire. "You're out in the sunlight and that's not quite normal."

The vampire, who was still glaring at him, frowned more, "You're not one o' them pansy Watchers are you?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I'm not. I'm just on holiday and thought we should have a chat."

"What the hell did you do to me?!" he snarled again.

"I immobilized you," Harry said simply. "It's not permanent and after you answer a few of my questions, you're free to go about your business."

"Yeah?" he bit of, not believing a word of it.

"Yeah," Harry told him, fully meaning it. "I'm a man of my word."

The vampire studied him for a moment before growling at him, teeth bared, although still in 'human' form. "Alright, what do want to know? And make it quick, I'm in a hurry."

Harry smiled slightly, "I won't keep you then. Tell me about the ring."

He didn't want to but he clearly knew he didn't have much of a choice. "It's called the Gem of Amara, alright?" the blonde vampire told him.

Harry nodded, "And it protects you from the sun?"

The vampire snorted, "It bloody does more than that! It makes me damn near unkillable."

"I could point out that you're already dead," Harry told the vampire. "But I think you know that. So you wear the ring and it protects you from everything? Sun, fire… stakes?"

"Yeah, that and then some. You gonna let me go now or you just gonna keep talking?" he asked. Harry shook his head. The vampire growled again, "Knew you weren't gonna let me go. A man of your word? Ha!"

"I said I would and I will, but I'll be taking the ring first… It's a most curious item."

"Little problem there," the vampire told him. "You take that off and I burst into flames. That would be bad for me health and you wouldn't have kept your word. I guess you'll have to remove your spell from me."

The grin on his face clearly said what the consequences of that would be.

"Or I could move you into shade," Harry told him. He pointed his wand at the vampire again and levitated it into the air.

"Put me down you bloody ponce!" the English vampire shouted at him.

Harry ignored it and found the newest sewer entrance. He dropped the vampire for a second and levitated the manhole cover away. "You know," Harry said to the vampire. "I like the jacket."

A look of realising crossed the vampires face and it was the first signs of panic that outweighed its annoyance and rage. "You are not havin' this jacket! Have the ring, but this jacket is mine!"

Harry cast a switching spell on the jacket and rock on the ground. The jacket materialised at his feet and the rock appeared in mind air over the vampire's right breast before falling to the ground. "You take that jacket and I will hunt you down for the rest of your very short life!"

"Is that a threat?" Harry asked, his eyes flashing. He took a step closer. "The only reason I'm letting you leave is because you didn't try to kill me and you didn't threaten me. Now, tell me again, what will you do if I take you jacket?"

The vampire obviously noted the change in Harry's eyes and tone and did the only sensible thing it could, "Fine. I'll leave you alone." Harry clearly heard the _'for now'_ that was silently tacked on in the end.

Harry smirked at the vampire, amused. "Good boy," Harry told him, smiling at the angry look that crossed the blondes face. Harry waved his wand at the vampire, moving the arm that ring was on upwards. He then levitated the vampire down into the manhole. "See you around," he told it. With that he switched his levitation spell to a summoning spell and pulled the ring from its finger and allowing the vampire to fall.

"Argh! My finger!" Harry heard it yell as it fell. There was a wet crash a few seconds later. Harry levitated the manhole cover back over its hole. The spell he cast would no doubt wear off in a few minutes. He picked up the discarded jacket and Apparated away.

OoOoOoOoO

Buffy sat in Giles' apartment with an open book on her lap that she wasn't really reading. She was the Slayer and thus slayed things. Giles was the Watcher and he did the book-learning thing along with Willow. If she tried to the research thing as well… well, the world would likely try come to an end and then she'd have to stop it. That would really ruin her day. So, just to be on the safe side, she sat and did nothing as her friends researched Harry.

Her mind was also distracted by a guy she'd recently slept with, Parker. She'd eyed him for a week, making idle conversation with him around campus. Two nights ago they'd gone to a frat party together and finished the night in her bed. She'd waited for him to call her but he hadn't. Just this morning she'd come across him around UCLA chatting up another girl using similar words to those he'd used to seduce her. She had talked to Parker and from what she could tell, the guy wanted nothing more to do with her. What was wrong with her? Had she done something wrong? Why didn't he want her?

She listened idly as her two best friends talked across the room. "… so you're saying he saved Buffy and later you, from Harmony of all people?" Xander asked Willow. Xander was her best male friend, although she admittedly had very few of them. He had been Willow's best friend since pre-school and had a really close relationship, despite it having been strained lately. Neither she nor Willow had seen Xander often in the last few months. He had gone on a road trip across America for a while and lately both the girls had been swamped with college stuff and Xander had been trying to find a job.

"Pretty much," Willow told him, talking and reading through a thick demony book at the same time.

"And he's not evil?" Xander asked for what Buffy was sure was the fifth time this morning.

Willow shot her oldest friend and annoyed yet fond look, "He doesn't appear to be. He's quite nice."

"Ok, and he does magic with a stick?" Xander asked for what Buffy knew was the third time. Xander seemed a bit out of sorts today; even more than usual. She had no idea what he had been sexually propositioned by the ex-vengeance demon that he'd brought to prom last night, nor would he tell her.

"Good lord," Giles muttered, attracting the attention of the teenagers in the room. He looked quite dumbstruck as his eyes quickly scanned the page he was reading.

"What is it Giles?" Buffy asked her mentor. When Giles read through a book with that look in his eyes it never meant anything good.

Giles looked over to her and Willow, "What was it you told me Harry said when you asked him about his wand?" Xander snickered slightly at the possibly double-ententre. Giles send him a withering look.

Blushing slightly, Willow responded, "Um, he said that if his theory on this reality was correct that they hadn't been used here in 7000 years."

"The timing fits," Giles muttered to himself, although there was a bit of a grin on his face that relaxed Buffy slightly. Maybe this 'Good Lord' was actually a good one? Would wonders never cease?

"What've you got G-man?" Xander asked curiously.

Buffy smiled ever so slightly as Giles frowned again at Xander. Buffy knew her Watcher well enough to know that the nickname didn't bother him that much, and the frustrated look was merely part of the game. Xander knew this as well.

"Well, from what I can guess…"

**OoOoOoOoO**

Two hours later Harry came upon Giles' home and knocked on the door. He'd examined the ring he'd taken from the blonde vampire and patched up his new jacket slightly. It was old and had obviously seen a lot. It was frayed and faded slightly in places. Feeling as though this jacket resembled how he felt most of the time, he threw it on. Another plus with the leather jacket was that leathered retained magic fairly well and he'd been able to add a simple enchantments that kept his body cool when wearing it. His dragonhide could do the same, but the jacket was a bit larger than a few plates of armour.

He heard the conversation inside the apartment stop at the knock and a few seconds later Giles' opened the door. "Ah, Harry," he said before stepping back from the door. Harry understood that as Giles' inviting him in without actually verbalising it; something he had explained yesterday.

"Good morning Giles," Harry said as he walked into the apartment. He looked around the room and saw Buffy, Willow and another person he hadn't seen before. "Buffy, Willow," Harry said to them with a nod. They all had books open on their laps and they seemed to have been researching him and/or a way to get him home.

"Morning Harry," Willow said brightly. The man sitting beside her cleared her throat. Realisation crossed her face. "Oh! Harry, this is Xander Harris. Xander, Harry Potter."

Harry walked over to him and offered his hand, "Nice to me you."

Xander shook backed, "Yeah, you too."

Harry glanced at the books. "Is this regarding me?" Harry asked.

"Well, we think so," Willow said.

She was about to say more but Buffy interrupted. "Harry," she said slowly. "Where did you get that jacket?" She was looking at him oddly, calculatingly.

Giles rolled his eyes, "Buffy, I don't think we need to discuss fashion this morning."

"Giles, look at the jacket. Doesn't it look familiar?" Buffy told him. Harry realised she likely knew that vampire he'd spoken with this morning.

Giles surveyed Harry's 'new' black jacket for a moment before his eyes widened, "Is that…"

"Mhmm," Buffy muttered as she eyed Harry carefully.

"Ok, what?" Xander asked confused. "What am I missing here?"

"That's Spike's jacket," Buffy told him. Willow and Xander's eyes also widened and he was looked at with a bit of distrust.

"So that was his name?" Harry asked, fully aware of the looks he was getting. Apparently this Spike was not a friend. "I never asked."

"And, uh, why is it you have Spike's jacket?" Giles asked with a frown.

"I thought it looked nice and as I'd already stolen his jewellery, taking his jacket seemed to follow on nicely. It's a nice fit," Harry told them.

The looks of distrust quickly switched to those of disbelief. "You stole Spike's jacket?" Buffy asked before laughing slightly. Harry could see the amusement in her eyes, her smile had a lingering sadness there, something that hadn't been there last time he'd seen her. He wondered what was wrong. "I bet he was pissed at that."

Harry smiled slightly, "He certainly didn't appear pleased."

"I'm sorry," Giles said. "But how exactly did you steal a vampire's jacket?"

Harry drew his wand, carefully in case anyone misinterpreted the action. "Can I show you?" he asked with a side look to Buffy.

Willow smiled brightly at the concept of seeing more magic and Giles nodded. With two quick flicks of his wand he cast a switching charm on Buffy's loose blue top and switched it with Willow's bright red t-shirt. Everyone in the room blinked in surprise at the use of magic. "That's how I did it," Harry told them.

Willow looked fascinated and prodded the top with a finger to check if it was real. Buffy simply glared at Harry. Something Harry had noticed before casting the spell was that Willow's t-shirt was quite tight and he had already noted that the girl was stick thin. Buffy, despite being shorter was a tad bigger and as such, the shirt was a bit too tight on her; something that if Xander's look indicated, he'd noticed as well.

"Harry," Buffy calmly said through closed teeth. "Reversing the spell would be a really good idea." Willow glanced away from her new top over to Buffy and her eyes widened slightly as she blushed.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. His attempted mischievousness had been in an attempt to get a reaction out of her. From the tone of her voice she wasn't in the mood for any sort of banter. "Sorry," Harry said before switching their tops back.

"We can assume that Spike is no more then?" Giles asked hopefully.

Harry shook his head, "I let him go."

"You what?" Buffy shouted, standing up.

Harry shrugged, "He didn't try to hurt me and he only threatened to kill me once he realised I wanted his jacket and so I let him leave after I got the information I wanted out of him."

"I'm confused," Buffy said. "Every time you've seen a vamp for far you've dusted them in seconds. Why was Spike different?"

Harry took a seat next to her. She sat back down and Giles moved back to his chair. "Every time I destroyed one of them they were attacking. The one the other night had Willow by the throat." He glanced over at the red-head. "I don't know about you but I'd consider you a friend."

She smiled brightly again. Her smile was stunning Harry thought. "You're a friend too!"

Harry nodded, "That vampire was attacking a friend of mine so it obviously had a death wish. I would have stopped it even if I hadn't known Willow, but you get my point. Same with the vampires I saw when I met Buffy." He ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not explaining this how I want to." He took a deep breath, "As I told you, in my world, vampires are still human. They have most of the same attributes that the ones here have, only they're human and they don't kill just for the fun of it."

He saw everyone was listening closely and continued, "I also mentioned that, in my world, I have a substantial price on my head for accidentally assassinating one of the three oldest vampires in existence."

"Um, how do you accidentally assassinate a vampire?" Xander asked in confusion.

"How much have they explained about me?" Harry asked him.

"I think I got the gist," he said.

Harry nodded, "The magical part of my world was in the middle of civil war at the time. People were seeking alliances with whoever they could to get the upper hand. Voldemort, the guy we were fighting, had already gotten to the main European werewolf packs so we tried for the vampires. My… mentor and I got into talks with a vampire by the name of Lestat." He received a few snorts of mocking from people around the room. Apparently that clichéd vampire name had crossed over here as well.

"He was apparently the first by that name, considering he was a little of 5000 years old when I met him. He was also the Master vampire of all the European covens."

"What happened?" Willow asked.

"My mentor and I asked him for an alliance. They help us defeat Voldemort and we do what we can after the war to try and get the vampire covens more legal rights. They refused, but agreed that they would stay out of the war. That was good enough for us so we agreed to the pact. They weren't asking anything from us and we had something to gain."

Harry winced slightly in remembrance for what happened next. He smiled sheepishly, "To bind pacts with mortals, the human would willingly donate some of their blood, enough to fill a small goblet, and the vampire would drink it. They deemed those pacts unbreakable. We hadn't anticipated that my blood was… altered."

"Altered?" Giles asked.

"When I was twelve I was bitten my by snake so poisonous that the venom will kill a grown man in just over a minute. The only thing that can… well, not cure it, but stop the lethal effects, is phoenix tears. Given my perchance for the odd, there happened to be a phoenix nearby. It cried some tears into the wound and it healed. Naturally, it was assumed that the tears counteracted the poison and my blood was fine."

"So say the tears didn't cure you?" Giles asked. Harry nodded. "And so the tears and the venom were still in your blood constantly cancelling each other out."

Harry nodded, "That's right. So when the vampire drank my blood…" He trailed off, allowing them to finish.

"The poison and the tears destroyed the vampire from the inside out," Giles concluded, eyes wide. "That's how you accidentally assassinate the vampire." He smiled wryly, "I can't imagine the other vampires were particularly happy about that."

Harry winced again, "No, they weren't. We barely escaped with our lives and almost wiped out one of the largest European covens just trying to escape. A huge price was put on my head after that and I've been hunted by vampires ever since."

"So when you saw the vampires that night I first saw you, you still thought you were in your world and that the vampires were after you. You let Spike go because he didn't do anything to you and he doesn't know about you either," Buffy summed up.

Harry nodded towards her, pleased she understood, "Buffy has it right. If someone or something leaves without attacking, I'll let it… or them… live."

"Very well," Giles said. "I think that clears things up a bit. Oh, what was it you wanted from Spike?"

"Ah!" Harry said, remembering that he hadn't said. He reached into one of the pockets and pulled out the contents. He removed a lighter and a pack of fags that had been there when he'd taken it, as well as the gold ring. He looked at it closely again. The golden ring with the green gem had an interesting pattern on top of it; a cage to secure the gem. It was made up of only a few lines but it clearly resembled the top part of a skull. He chucked it at Giles who caught it and looked at it closely.

"The vampire… Spike… was wearing this as he went for a sunny walk through a park."

Understanding and horror crossed the faces of each person in the room at the thought. "You're saying Spike was outside, during the day, in sunlight?!" Buffy asked.

Harry nodded, "I saw his aura, mixed the green from the ring, so I stopped him and promised if he told me what the ring was I'd let him go."

"And he told you?" Giles asked, not looking up from the ring.

"He called it the Gem of Amara," Harry told the room. Giles' head snapped round to him so fast it cracked slightly.

"The Gem of Amara?" he asked, almost breathless. "Are you sure it was exactly that?"

Harry nodded, "That's what he said. Told me it made him immune to… well, everything." He smiled slightly, "You know, apart from me pulling it off his finger…"

Giles was now looking at the ring with deep fascination. "Giles," Buffy asked. "What's the deal with the ring? It's not even that pretty."

"This ring shouldn't exist," Giles told her. "This ring is the Holy Grail to vampires. It makes them immune to sunlight, fire, stakes… any vampire that wore this would be almost invincible. If Harry hadn't found Spike and taken the ring from him…" he shivered at the concept.

The room lapsed into silence for a moment as everyone pondered what Spike would have been like with the ring. Harry watched Buffy though. A sad look crossed her face again.

"So what do we do with it?" Xander asked.

"It's obviously very dangerous," Giles said. "Destroying it would…"

Buffy interrupted him, "We don't destroy it." Her voice was quiet and tired, but there was still some strength behind it.

Everyone looked to Buffy. "But, Buffy," Giles said. "Any vampire that gets his hands on this is going to be essentially unkillable." Buffy looked at him, her eyes pleading. Giles' expression didn't shift but he clearly realised what she meant, "Oh."

Harry glanced around the room. Willow had a look of understanding on her face but Xander was looking back and forth between the blonde and the red-head in confusion. "What's going on?" he asked softly from his seat on the floor.

"She's giving the ring to Angel," Willow told him. "Don't make a fuss," she added softly as he frowned.

Harry felt decidedly out of place here. Everyone but him knew what was going on and it wasn't a feeling he liked. Sensing the stilled tension in the room, he decided it best not to ask just now.

"Buffy, are you sure?" Giles asked seriously.

She nodded, "He should have it."

Giles nodded, despite clearly not being too happy about giving the ring to whoever Angel was.

"I think I'll go take a walk," Buffy said. She stood up and headed for the door. "Bye guys, Harry." She turned and left.

The uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a few minutes more. "I hope no one minds me asking," Harry said, breaking the silence. "But who's Angel and why did mentioning his name drive Buffy out of the house?"

Xander opened his mouth to speak but Willow shot him a look that he interpreted as 'I'll handle this'. "Angel was Buffy's boyfriend. She loved him and well, it didn't end very well."

"Why give him the ring then… wait, he was vampire?" He frowned slightly, dating a vampire in his world wouldn't be seen as that weird, but here they were demons that were apparently evil. "She dated a vampire?"

"He was different. He had a soul," Willow told him. "He was cursed by gypsies and they returned it to him as punishment for killing a girl from their clan."

Harry sat forward on his chair, "Soul magic? They returned a soul?"

"Um, yeah," Willow told him, taken surprise by how excited he seemed at hearing that. "Um, why?"

"That's some serious magic," Harry told her, impressed. "I've done some studying on soul magic. It's… frowned upon, but a few years back I had to study it out of necessity and it interested me more than I imagined it would have."

"Oh, well, we have the spell somewhere that was used, but I don't know if it would work for you. I did the spell once and as I can't seem to use your magic…" Willow said.

"It's then likely that I couldn't use yours," Harry finished. That was unfortunate. There were a lot of Dementor attacked people that could use the help that spell could provide. He'd have to take a copy of that spell back with him if he ever got home. He was unarguably the most knowledgeable in his world in regards to soul magic. He'd see what he could do with the spell.

"So if he had a soul, and, from what I can tell, she still loves him, why did he break up with her?" Harry asked, trying to understand.

"When the Gypsies cursed him they added a… happiness clause. If he ever reached a moment of perfect happiness the spell holding his soul would vanish and he'd become a monster again."

Harry thought about what she said. She mentioned having to cast the soul spell herself, so it was likely that the 'perfect happiness' clause had kicked in at some point and then his soul had to be returned. "He lost his soul?" Harry asked.

Willow nodded, "He reached… prefect happiness with Buffy and then turned all evil and started to hurt people. We returned his soul after a lot of drama and then he was Angel again. He left because he wanted Buffy to have a normal life with someone who would age with her."

Harry nodded understanding that, "Why tell me this stuff? This seems pretty private."

"I think we can trust you," Willow told him. "You've saved Buffy and you've saved me. Buffy seems to like you as well." Harry raised an eyebrow. "She seems more like her old self when she was talking to you the other day."

Harry didn't quite know what to make of that so he settled on changing the subject, "Where is Angel staying now?"

"He has a detective agency in L.A just now," Giles told him. "Why?"

"I'd volunteer to take the ring to him if that was alright," Harry said.

"Why would you want to do that?" Xander asked. Harry guessed by the way Xander had pretty much been silenced since Angel had been mentioned that there was no love loss between them.

"My interest in soul magic has pretty much neared obsession. I'd love to see what the spell that returns and holds a soul looks like. As well, I did find the ring…"

"Um, I don't see a problem with that, but I imagine you should talk to Buffy about that before make the trip. I imagine you would be able to teleport there?" Giles asked.

Harry nodded, "It's called Apparition, but if you find it for me on a map, I won't have much difficulty."

They lapsed into silence again. "Oh, I never got a chance to show you what I found," Giles said, motioning to the dozen or so open books scattered around the room.

"How about we got over them tomorrow or something?" Harry asked. "This day seems to have reached a fairly melancholy mood."

"Yes, that might be for the best," Giles said.

Harry nodded and with a flick of his wrist he summoned the gold ring from the table in front of him into his hand. "This would likely be safest at my place," Harry told them as he pocketed it.

Giles nodded, "With the protections you cast last night, I imagine you're correct."

Harry stood, "Well, thank you for the hospitality and for doing this research, but I think I'm going to go." He received a nod from Giles. "Giles, Willow." He turned to Xander, "It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah," Xander said with a nod. With that Harry Disapparated from Giles' home.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Instead of Apparating home Harry Apparated just outside of Giles' home. He was going to see if he could Buffy. With a bit of magic it only took him five minutes to find her. She was sitting on the grass in park, just watching children running around and playing. She turned at the sound of his footsteps. Recognising him she turned back to facing the other way. Harry neared her and pulled a cigarette from his jacket. They were the fags that he had inadvertently stolen from Spike. He pulled one out of the packet, placed it between his lips, clicked his fingers and lit it. He walked up beside Buffy, shrugged off his jacket and sat down beside her.

"How'd you find me?" Buffy asked.

"Magic," Harry answered simply, not willing to give all his secrets away at once.

"You're a guy right?" Buffy asked suddenly.

Harry blinked a few times in surprise at the question. "I was when I checked this morning," he said. He smiled slightly at her, "I could check again if you wanted?"

She smiled slightly. "No, I believe you." She took a breath and looked at him curiously. The sadness was still clear in her eyes. "Am I repulsive?" she asked. There was honest to god curiosity in her eyes. She really wanted an answer to the question.

"No," Harry told her honestly with no hesitation. "Nothing I've seen from you could be described that way. Why ask?" He took a drag of his cigarette as he watched her.

She shook her head, "It doesn't matter. Something's wrong with me, I just don't know what."

"Wrong?" Harry asked curiously.

"Its girl stuff, you wouldn't be interested," she told him, not wanting to talk about it more.

Harry shrugged, letting it drop for the most part, "Well, you aren't repulsive by any means. I've quite enjoyed talking with you while I've been here. You and your group have been nothing but nice to me. So…" Harry said, looking to change the subject. "Willow told me about Angel, well, the seriously abridged version at the very least."

"She did?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I volunteered to take the ring to him in L.A. and they said I should speak to you about that. I can Apparate there and back in no time," Harry told her.

"Apparate?" she asked, her face scrunched up slightly in confusion. It looked cute on her.

"Teleport," Harry told her.

"Oh, well, we can trust you right?" she asked.

Harry nodded, "Willow seems to trust me."

She chuckled slightly, "You earned some brownie points with her when you saved her from Harmony. She was completely caught by surprise and you saved her before anything bad could happen." She looked at Harry curiously, "You seem to be making a habit out of that."

Harry chuckled, "My friend Hermione says that I have a 'saving-people thing'. I just can't help myself."

"I can understand that," Buffy said.

"We're one and the same, aren't we?" Harry asked curiously.

"What d'ya mean?" she asked curiously.

"You were chosen by prophecy, tasked to save the world?" he asked.

"Yeah; Slayer." She blinked in understanding, "You were as well? For your world?"

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…" Harry recited from memory.

"That's a prophecy?" Buffy asked.

"It was made before I was born and it's haunted me since then," he told her. He had no idea why, no idea in the slightest, why he was telling her this. There were people he'd known for eight years he wouldn't have spoken this openly with. Maybe it was because she was a 'chosen one' like he was. All he knew was that he felt comfortable talking to this girl.

Only his life.

"So you understand?" she asked. "The pressure and the expectations?"

Harry chuckled although there was little humour in it, "If the guy trying to kill me didn't the pressure would have. It's why I'm glad to be here actually."

"The guy you were fighting before you fell through your Hellmouth, he was the one in your prophecy?" Buffy asked.

Harry nodded again, "I defeated him once when I was a year old… don't ask… and was a celebrity then. People are going to be unbearable now that I've done it again."

Buffy frowned, "I don't get any recognition when I save the world. Some would be nice."

Harry laughed, "You think that now. I've lived with it and it's not fun." They lapsed into a downhearted silence again and Harry decided he'd had enough of that. He needed something to do to keep his mind off his world and Buffy clearly needed something to do to take her mind off what was bothering her. "What's your favourite colour?" Harry asked her out of the blue.

"I don't know," she said. "Black?"

Harry shook his head, black wouldn't do. "Try something a bit brighter, I'm planning something here."

"Alright," Buffy said, looking confused still. "Pink?"

Harry kept his smirk hidden as much as he could. He glanced up at the top of her head, "You have something in your hair. Here, let me get it."

**OoOoOoOoO**

Buffy, still taken by surprise at Harry's odd question about her favourite colour sat unresisting as he leaned over to her, brought his hand up to her face and brushed something, likely a leaf, from out of her hair. She blushed slightly at his close contact; usually when a guy was this close to a girl with his hand by the side of her face, he would then kiss her. Buffy found that she wouldn't mind if he did. She would welcome it after what was happening with Parker. Harry was gorgeous and if he did kiss her, she wouldn't feel quite as repulsive anymore.

She felt a tingle go down her spine as his hand touched her hair and her heart sped up.

Before she could get her hopes up too high that Harry would kiss her he pulled back his hand and sat back. "There, I've sorted it," he said with a cute smile.

They sat in silence for a moment and she watched as Harry's smile widen. She was about to ask what he was smiling at when he chuckled slightly and brought his hand up to his mouth to try cover it. "What?" she asked, not really sure she wanted an answer.

Smile still on his face Harry shrugged, "Nothing. I just thought of something funny. On that note, I've got somewhere I really need to be." With a wave of his hand the cigarette in his hands vanished and he stood up, putting his jacket on. He grinned at from above, "I really like what you've done with your hair." With that he laughed, turned and ran.

Worried something had happened to her hair and she hadn't notice, she grabbed a big piece of it from the side Harry and touched and brought it to her field of vision. She stared at in shock for a good twenty seconds before realising what had happened. She stood quickly watching as Harry quickly retreated.

"Harry Potter! You fix this!" she shouted at him. His laughter, almost too far away to hear increased.

"Oh, he's going to pay for this," Buffy muttered and she began to run after him at full Slayer speed, her pink hair flowing behind her.

**OoOoOoOoO**


	5. Conversations & an Angel

**AN:** _And here's chapter 5._

_For those who read my other story, do not despair, I'm still updating. Since I've been back from holiday I've been either injured or horrendously busy. I should start working on that story again soon._

_Please let me know what you think and how well I've portrayed the new characters. I'm looking for a beta to help with this, so if you want to help, PM me giving a thorough review of this story in its entirety._

_Thanks!_

**Chapter 5 - Conversations & an Angel**

Harry ran faster than he'd ever run in his life, not daring to look back once again. Looking back slowed him down and he would be damn lucky if his pursuer didn't catch him. Harry knew he was a fast runner; it was the first thing he was ever good at. No one in his primary school had been as fast as he was. Of course, he had to be fast to avoid the beatings his cousin and gang would give him, but it was still something he was proud of.

His pursuer was clearly faster than him and that wasn't good. He did have the option to Apparate away, but doing so would ruin his plan. All he had to do was keep going, and hope that his usual luck in deadly situations would prevail. He was quite certain that the thing chasing him would kill him if given the chance.

He jumped over a bush, frightening a few old women slowly walking by. "Sorry!" Harry shouted over his shoulder not looking back. He couldn't afford to. The only reason he was still ahead was the significant lead he had before the chase started.

He checked the road before him quickly, scanning for cars before sprinting across it. If he were to guess he only had a quarter mile to go before he reached his destination. He only hoped that he'd make it.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Rupert Giles sat in his apartment idly watching Willow as she poked around through his bookshelves. She had always been curious about the odd selection of books he had, but now that she was learning all she could about magic her interest had increased. She was taking to it quickly and he hoped it wouldn't go to her head like it did to so many others. He knew Willow was a good soul, so he wasn't too worried.

His eyes drifted over to Xander who had been oddly quiet today. There was something clear on the young man's mind, but he knew Xander would bring it up on his own if it was bothering him that much. He was just watching Willow poke through the demonology books, commenting at random intervals at the odd things Willow said.

Giles wasn't paying that much attention though. His mind was focused, mainly, on his charge, but as well on their dimensional traveller.

Thinking about Angel had clearly upset Buffy, given how fast she'd vanished after briefly mentioning him. There was no love loss between Giles and Angel. If it wasn't for how much Buffy would be hurt by it, he would have slayed the souled vampire a long time ago. After what he did to Jenny…

He shook his head of those thoughts; it wouldn't do to dwell on them.

Buffy was hurting now, but she would eventually get over it. She was a strong, resilient girl and would bounce back.

His mind drifted to Harry. If what he'd read about where this man could have come from - who he was descended from - then it was something truly incredible and very exciting. He was curious as to why he had vanished so quickly earlier as well. It had taken a little while but Giles' realised that they'd never asked Harry what he wanted to do with the ring. It was technically his after all. It was possible that he wanted it and only agreed to let them have it and do what they want with it as he was trying to find him a way home.

Well, he would speak with him later and ask Harry what his thoughts on the matter were.

"Are sure it's a good idea to..." Xander said to Willow.

"Yes. Angel is doing well in L.A," Willow told him for what Giles guessed was the third time in the last few minutes.

"What if he turns evil again, huh?" Xander asked with a small amount of triumph. "Then we'd have an unkillable Angel to fight."

Willow frowned slightly. This was one of the reasons Giles didn't want Angel to have the ring. Yes, he was good now, but they'd all seen how quickly that could change...

Willow's eyes brightened, "Then Harry can make him go poof! Or, you know, we could return his soul again..."

"'Make him go poof?'" Xander quoted with a smile. "You wanna clear that one up for me a bit Wills?"

Willow reddened slightly, "You know, like what he did to Harmony." She unconsciously rubbed her neck where the blonde vampire had bitten her only a short while ago. There was no scar thanks to Harry's healing magic, but it didn't mean her mind couldn't still feel the wound.

Xander smiled somewhat dreamily, "I would've loved to have seen that."

Giles rolled his eyes at Xander but didn't look up from his book.

Willow frowned, "I didn't see it. It all happened too fast. One second she was there with the biting and then... poof." She mimed said 'poofing' action with her hands.

Xander's next comment was cut off by frantic knocking on his front door. Giles looked up sharply. Who was that? Buffy would come straight in and there really wasn't anyone else that would knock with such urgency. Quickly, but carefully he moved to the front door, picking up and axe that lay on his kitchen counter beside the kettle. He'd meant to put that away earlier.

He opened the door and was surprised to find an out of breath Harry, who kept glancing behind him, clearly looking for something. "Can I... come in?" Harry asked Giles breathlessly.

As it was sunny outside, added to Harry's story on how his blood was poison to vampires he felt secure enough to verbally welcome him in, "Of course."

He stepped back just in time for Harry to push past and move into the main room where Willow and Xander were. "What is it?" Giles asked. "A demon?"

"Worse," Harry told him. He was beginning to get his breathing under control.

Giles was just about to ask exactly what had been chasing him when the source burst into his apartment. He instantly recognised it as Buffy. "Buffy? What are you..." It was then his mind caught up with the rest of him and he stared in shock at his Slayer. His look was mirrored nicely by Willow and Xander.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Harry walked backwards slowly at Buffy advanced on him. He'd made it here, so that was good. Surviving was now his main goal. His breathing was under control and he was doing his best not to smile. That wouldn't help.

"Fix my hair, now!" Buffy told him.

He held out his hands in surrender, "There's nothing wrong with your hair!"

"It's pink!" she snapped at him.

"You said you liked pink!" Harry said accusingly, pointing a finger at her. He could see the shocked looks on the faces around him and he smiled slightly. It was the wrong thing to do. Buffy stepped closer causing him to step back and walk into a wall. Buffy smirked victoriously as she saw his escape cut off.

"I like pink clothes and nail polish. Not my hair," she told him.

"But it looks pretty on you," Harry protested. He saw the minor indecision flicker across her face. He knew there was a small amount of attraction there, so it was something of a low blow, but he was trying to take both their minds of events they had no control of, so he'd use it for now.

"I always look pretty," she told him. "But if you don't fix my hair..."

Whilst he never considered himself all that great at divination – despite the odd vision he would have every now and then – he knew that if he left her hair like this, he'd suffer greatly. Despite the fact that he was in danger of bodily harm he couldn't help but smile. Buffy, who had only a few minutes ago had pretty much said she was repulsive had just told him that she was always pretty. That was achievement right there. "Fine," Harry sighed in mock disappointment. "If you insist."

He moved his right hand over to his left to pull out his wand. "Ah!" Buffy said. "No funny business wizard-boy. Nice and slow."

With mock slowness he drew his wand and cast a reversal charm on her hair. The bright pink slowly faded back to her usual blonde. Harry nodded to say that it was done. "Don't move," she told him and moved to find the nearest mirror. Willow, having anticipated this, gave her a small hand mirror. She breathed a sigh of relief as she examined every bit of hair that she could see. She turned back to Harry and fixed him with a glare. "That was mean," she said. Despite the dark look she was shooting him, she seemed more relaxed than before.

Harry held back several retorts that likely would have gotten him killed; he idly wondered if this world had made him suicidal. Instead he just shrugged.

"I liked it," Willow chirped, looking on in amusement.

"Yeah Buff," Xander said with an amused smile. "Digging the pink."

Buffy scowled at both her friends before turning to her Giles. Her arms were crossed as she frowned at him, making it clear what she wanted. Giles looked a bit out of sorts at being put on the spot. "Um, yes, well, it was a truly despicable act and Harry should be glad he sorted it."

Buffy turned to Harry with a smug grin on her face that someone disagreed with the thought that her hair should be pink. Harry just smiled back; he had seen the grin on Giles' face as Buffy had stormed in and knew the man was just trying to placate the blonde girl.

"Well," Giles said as he looked between Harry and Buffy. "As you both seem to have found your way back here, could we discuss what we originally intended to?"

Harry nodded, "Sure. I want to see how close my assumptions have gotten." He glanced to Buffy.

"Fine, as long as I don't have to be Book-Buffy," Buffy told him.

Giles looked at the younger girl with a small amount of amusement, "I dare say you won't have any research to do Buffy." She smiled happily. "For now," Giles added, smiling as she pouted.

"Fine, let's get this over with," she said and sat down on the couch where Willow now sat. Having no seats left Harry sat on the floor where Xander was. Everyone turned to Giles.

"This will likely have little to do with getting Harry back home, but I think it important to understand where our world and his separated." He looked at Harry, "You need to understand first that this information has always been viewed as fiction. It came from a very old book, but no facts have ever been truly proved and as such it was dismissed." He placed an old leather-bound book on the table in front of him. "I'm not sure if you know Harry, but the world did not begin as a paradise," Giles said.

Harry nodded, "Demons controlled it; I know that."

Giles blinked several times. From the slight smiles on the three teenagers around the room, he had been preparing for a speech that he'd given before and Harry had deprived him of it. "Yes, well." Giles cleared his throat, "The story tells how three brothers were drawn from a higher plain of existence by an unknown power in order to bring peace to the world."

Warning bells began to ring through Harry's mind at two key words he picked up there. He waited for Giles to continue.

"The three brothers were tasked with closing the Seven Hells, which was one of the reasons this tale has never been believed before. The Watchers Council were sure, beyond a doubt, that there were only two Hellmouth's, and Dante speaks of nine circles in Hell, which was the other interpretation of the text."

"And it wasn't until I mentioned the seven Hellmouth's did this seem valid," Harry finished for him.

"Ah, yes, you're somewhat correct," Giles said, seemingly pleased that Harry was following him. "Now, the three brothers were given tools in order to fight the demons and close the Seven Hell's. The eldest Brother, Antioch was given..."

"Wait, wait, wait, the brothers Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus Peverell?" Harry asked quietly. "The brothers were the Peverells?"

Giles blinked in surprise, "Ah, yes, they were. I imagine you've heard this legend before then?"

Harry shook his head. "Sort of. I know some details of the demon wars and how an unknown group of wizards closed the Hellmouths across the world, but there were never any names given or real details," he told them. "There was also a separate story about three brothers who bested death and were given rewards by him that eventually lead to the two eldest's death. That was written as a children's tale but I was shown proof that it was real only a year ago."

Harry sat with his mind racing, '_If this story is true in my world and I don't see why not, that means the Peverell's were the ones that created the Veil and closed the Hellmouths. Was that why Voldemort wanted the Elder Wand? Did he need the wand to unlock the final seal on it? Did I walk right up the Voldemort and almost hand him the key to destroying the world?_' Harry shook his head; he still considered himself lucky to have beaten Voldemort and it was only the extra strength the Elder Wand gave him, his seemingly endless supply of luck and Voldemort's arrogance that had given him an edge. If he had lost even one of those advantages, Harry was sure he would have failed.

The consequences of what would have happen should he have failed crashed down on him. He felt ill. He had almost, literally, brought Hell to Earth. He rubbed his face, trying to banish the thoughts with the little Occlumency that he'd mastered. He could protect his mind from invasion and retaliate in kind, but keeping himself in control was something he had never been too good at. Albus told him that it was likely something he'd never master; at least not for a long time.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked him.

He opened his eyes and noticed that everyone was looking at him in concern. "It's nothing," Harry said. "Just a headache. I get them sometimes." Everyone seemed to believe him, but he wanted the immediate topic away from him. "So, the Peverells?" he asked.

Giles nodded, "As you may already know an item was given to each brother by Anubis; a Wand of Elder to the eldest, a Stone of Resurrection to the middle child, and a Cloak of Invisibility to the youngest. From what I've been able to gather from the book, the youngest was the first to fall, during the Closer of Three."

"Of Three?" Willow asked.

"In the story, each of the Hellmouths was given a name, loosely translated, that numbered them from one to seven," Giles told her. "Next, Cadmus, the middle brother fell at the closure of Four and Antioch after the closure of Five."

"Leaving two Hellmouths," Buffy guessed.

"From what we can guess, yes," Giles told her.

Harry thought about the story and related it to the Tale of Three Brothers, a children's nursery rhyme by Beedle the Bard. His understanding of how this world came about and how this one differed was clearer, although he still had a lot of questions that he doubted he'd get an answered regarding. "I think I can see where the differences started," Harry told Giles.

"They're clear then?" he asked.

Harry nodded, "If you take the nursery story of Beedle the Bard into account. His story of the tree brothers had the eldest brother die, murdered for a wand that was said to be unbeatable. The middle brother used the Resurrection Stone and killed himself to be with his love when he realised that the stone didn't bring people back fully. The youngest was said to have survived under his Invisibility Cloak until old age took him. I'm taking a guess here, but in my world it's likely that Ignotus survived, closed the Hellmouths and lived on."

"And your proof of this?" Giles asked, curiously.

"Other than knowing I'm a descendent of Ignotus on the Parental Line?" Harry has asked with a small smile. He unsheathed his wand and showed it to those in the room. "What kind of wood do you think this is?"

They all looked confused, "Um, I don't understand why…" His eyes opened wide, "That's the wand the legend speaks of?" Giles asked. "You hold the Wand of Elder?"

Harry nodded, "It's called the Elder Wand these days, but yes, I've held it for a while. It's apparently more of a curse than a blessing, but it works as it should."

Giles just shared at the wand in awe.

"I don't get it," Buffy said confused. "What's the big deal with the wand? It just looks like some knobbly stake."

Giles blinked a few times and turned to the Slayer, "The legend of the wand states, very clearly, that whoever possesses the Wand of Elder will be immortal."

Everyone turned to Harry, their eyes questioning. "Not true," Harry told them. "Our legend says that whoever has the wand is unbeatable. This appears to be true in a magic on magic fight, but it fails to mention that you can very easily be stabbed in your sleep. There are only rumours about who has owned this wand before me, and every single one of them has died a violent and bloody death. The only way the wand will work for someone new is to kill whoever held it first."

Silence followed his words. It didn't take a genius to figure out what caused it, "The man was evil and a coward. My world is a far better place without him alive. Had you met him, you would have agreed." The tone of his voice clearly said that this was not something to argue against.

Killing wasn't something he liked or enjoyed doing, but even to the most passive people involved in the war eventually changed their mind. Most only killed when they absolutely had to, but for a few, like most of Harry's inner circle, they learned to kill those who tried to kill them.

For such a high profile group, that had been most Death Eaters.

He was getting some uncomfortable looks from the people in the room. Well, not from Giles. He glanced to him and the man nodded ever so slightly. It was a nod Harry interpreted as saying that he knew you sometimes had to do things you'd rather not. It increased Harry's respect in the man. He'd made a very good impression so far.

Buffy looked a little disturbed, but there was a look in her eye that said she was considering his words. She was a Chosen One. He didn't know her story, or anything about her adventures, but she had to have made some difficult decisions in her life.

Willow and Xander just looked a bit anxious, as though Harry might try and kill them at any moment.

Harry sighed, he wasn't going to get much done here anymore and he hated the look he got from people whenever he first mentioned that he'd taken a life. What would they think if they knew just how high his body count was? Buffy was likely to slay him.

He wondered if he would ever have a conversation with this collective group that ended on a high note. "Well, I'm going to examine the ring and try find out what it can do. I'll come back round when I'm done and we'll see about getting this to L.A." He pushed himself to his feet, wandlessly summoned the ring from the table to his hand, using the full amount of his wandless magic that didn't require touching the subject.

He gave a short wave to the people in the room and Disapparated out with a small crack.

**OoOoOoOoO**

There was a short moment of silence after Harry Disapparated away from Giles' place. "Well, that could have gone better," said, cleaning his glasses despite them already being clean.

"Ya think?" Xander asked. "He didn't appear to want to stick around here for long."

"I don't think he was particularly comfortable with our reactions," Giles told them despite it being obvious.

"Well, Giles, he killed someone," Willow said. "Not a demon or a vampire or anything, but a person."

"Willow," Giles sighed. "I could see it in his eyes when he spoke; he didn't want to kill anyone. Unfortunately, it's sometimes necessary to take a life, especially during a war, and that was what Harry implied he was fighting."

"But he still killed someone Giles," Willow protested. "That's wrong."

"I tried to kill Faith," Buffy spoke up quietly. "I stabbed her to try and save Angel. I fought her with the intention of taking her life."

"But Buffy, she deserved it," Willow protested again. "She was trying to kill us and you needed to save Angel."

"Did she deserve it?" Buffy asked with a frown. "I tried to take a life to save Angel. I tried to kill a Slayer to save a vampire. I thought I had killed her. And what's to say whoever Harry killed didn't deserve it? He obviously had the wand thingy, so he had to have killed someone first."

Giles blinked in surprise at his Slayer. She had always been adamant, completely if one forgot about the Faith incident, that taking a human life was wrong. The Slayer's purpose was to fight the creatures of the night. It was the justice system that was meant to take care of the human crimes.

Giles knew that sometimes someone had to take a life. There were some people in the world that were simply too dangerous to allow. "That's very astute of you Buffy," Giles told the blonde proudly. She smiled slightly.

"I imagine it's never easy to take a life and talking about would likely be difficult as well," Giles told the teenagers. In his duties as a Watcher he had been forced to take several lives. It never got easier, but there was the slightest relief knowing that those he killed had been very dangerous.

"So, what was the big deal with his stick thing?" Xander asked. "You seem to make a big deal of it."

Giles sighed slightly. Why didn't these people notice obvious things? "Xander, that wand is reportedly 7000 years old and created by Anubis, a God. Using it makes him practically unkillable in battle. The information on that wand and the other items given to the three brothers was another reason this legend has been ignored by the Watchers Council. They didn't believe such powerful items could exist."

"So the sticks a big deal?" Buffy asked.

Giles nodded, "It would make whoever held it tremendously powerful. The Watchers Council would kill to possess it and I don't mean that as a figure of speech."

Everyone looked uncomfortable at that. The Watcher's Council wasn't their favourite organisation.

"So even though he had that wand he'd always been in danger?" Willow asked.

Giles nodded again, "He would have to be constantly on guard for fear of being stabbed in the back by anyone wanting power. I imagine that explains the… viciousness of the protections he placed on his apartment."

"What do they do?" Xander asked.

"Let's just say that you wouldn't want to be an uninvited guest with malicious intentions in that place. I don't imagine it would be very pleasant for anyone," Giles told him. Willow, having watched the protections being cast, nodded.

"So Buffy," Giles said. "I was surprised to see you come back so soon."

Buffy smiled sheepishly, "I didn't plan on it. It wasn't until I chased Harry back here that I realised what he'd done."

"What did he do?" Willow asked curiously with a big smile. "How did he make your hair pink?"

Buffy blushed slightly as she remembered. "We were talking about things and he randomly asked me what my favourite colour was. He," she cleared her throat and tried to keep her blush at bay. "He said there was something in my hair and brushed the side of my head. He pulled back, said he like what I did with my hair and then ran."

"And then you realised he turned your hair pink?" Xander asked with a smile.

Buffy nodded with a frown, "I shouted at him to fix it and he laughed so I chased him. He can run fast. I was almost a mile away from here when he found me."

"He was looking for you?" Willow asked.

"Mhmm," Buffy said. "He wanted to ask if it was alright if he gave the ring to… to Angel.

"Oh," Willow said quietly, waiting to see what saying Angel's name did to Buffy.

She smiled slightly to the red-heads surprise, "It was kind of sweet really. I think he was trying to get my mind off… other things."

"You think he changed your hair so you would, um, be mad at him instead?" Giles asked.

"I didn't take him for a masochist," Xander wondered allowed only to be hit in the face with a pillow by Buffy. He picked himself up from lying flat on the floor and watched her half pout, half glare at him.

"I wasn't going to hurt him… too much," she told him.

Xander snorted, "No offence Buff, but the look you gave him would have left lesser men crying in fear."

"I am so not that bad," Buffy protested.

"I hate to say it Buff…" Xander said.

Buffy turned to Willow, "Tell Xander that I'm not that bad."

"You can be sometimes," Willow said with a small smile.

Buffy pouted, increasing the smiles on the faces of her friends. "What is this, gang up on Buffy day?"

"Wasn't that yesterday?" Xander asked, only to receive a second pillow to the face. From his position on the floor he looked up at his blonde friend and clearly saw her proud look.

"No fair!" he protested. "I'm being attacked by the Slayer and none of you are helping me. Come on G-man, back me up," he said to Giles.

Giles just looked at him with a small smile, "I'm afraid you brought this upon yourself Xander. I could have told you the folly of making fun of a Slayer, but then, you wouldn't have listened to me anyway."

Xander sighed in mock defeat and threw the cushions back to Buffy. She made herself comfortable with them and looked at him smugly.

Giles just rolled his eyes.

"So do ya know anymore on how to get Harry back home?" Willow asked Giles.

"No I'm afraid," Giles said. "I haven't found the faintest clue actually. There are several spells and rituals that would allow a dimensional traveller to return home, but I've yet to find anything that makes mention of dimensional travel through Hellmouth's. I'm afraid this might take a long time." He sighed and cleaned his glasses, "Usually, I would be tempted to speak to some of my contacts at the Watcher's Council, but given what Harry is, I don't believe that would be in his best interest."

"They wouldn't want him to go," Buffy guessed.

"They would either wish to study him, use him as a weapon, or kill him so they could take control of the Elder Wand Harry carries. It would be so unfortunate if Harry was forced to kill the lot of them." Despite his words, he didn't sound like he meant them.

"So we'll just figure it out ourselves then," Willow chirped brightly "We haven't needed those stuffy Brits to sort out things like this before." She blinked. "No offence to you Giles," she added quickly.

"None taken," Giles told the girl dryly.

"He's like me you know," Buffy said out of the blue.

"He's a Slayer?" Xander asked.

Buffy shot him a patronizing look, "No Xander. He's… he's a Chosen One. He told me there was a prophesy saying he had to kill that evil guy he was fighting."

"The one that resulted in him falling through a Hellmouth?" Giles asked.

"Yeah. When we talked he really sounded like he understood what I do and what it feels like," Buffy said, looking thoughtful.

Giles smiled at the girl, "Then it might do you some good to have him here. I know you'd hoped that, that Faith, would be able to help you shoulder your burden, but well…"

"She went crazy and killed people?" Xander asked.

Giles frowned at him slightly, "Not the words I would have used, no, but accurate enough none the less." The Dark Slayer was a bit of a sour spot for each of the Slayer group, but Giles knew that Xander had taken what happened badly. He had genuinely tried to help the girl, something they hadn't tried too hard at, and she'd almost killed him for it.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Harry sat at his dining room table scribbling in a leather-bound notebook. The table in front of him was covered in books and several hovered around him as he worked. The table just hadn't been big enough. The Gem of Amarra lay in the epicentre.

Harry scored out what he had just written and tried rewriting it again.

As he'd told Giles, he was no enchanter and had very little personal or practical knowledge on the subject. What he did have was books from some of the smartest wizards to inhabit the 'Hogwarts Dimension' as he was now calling it.

The books had given him a large catalogue of identification spells and how to interpret the findings. The spells were easy. Understanding the results was not.

He sucked on the end of his quill – an everlasting sugar quill that could actually be used to write, and frowned at one of the floating books as he tried to decipher the aura like glow that the Identifier had picked up. He wished Hermione was here for this. She would have been in her element.

He knew however that he couldn't just abandon this. If he got home and she found out that he'd ignored something like this, he'd wish he stayed here in this dimension. 'The Slayer Dimension' as he'd named it. It was getting annoying thinking 'My dimension and Your dimension' all the time. Things needed names.

Having a fairly good idea what the glow on the green gem indicated, he marked it down in the notebook that he'd started yesterday.

After leaving Giles' place after telling people that he'd killed someone, he immediately began work on the ring. That had now been 31 hours ago and he was still working. With the visions that he was having about a girl that needed saved and the nightmares that came from everything he'd seen and done during the war, he preferred to stay awake.

Projects such as this were actually godsends to him and had been for years. That had been one reason he'd put so much work into his study of… well, of darker things. They needed done and they kept his mind busy.

The journal on the Gem was now 87 pages long and still growing. He understood less than a tenth of what he'd written. He was sure Hermione would love trying to make sense of his workings.

The Gem of Amarra was really something though. He'd worked out quickly that the gold ring that surrounded the Gem did nothing to its effect and so he'd removed it from its holdings. The Gem of Amarra was now just a gem, not a ring.

The gem itself was extraordinarily powerful and a vast number of spells had been cast and interwoven in it. What he'd been doing was to try and make sense of those spells. Given that a lot of them seemed to have been cast by ritualistic magic, he was out of his depth. There was the slight temptation to ask Willow what she could tell him, but two things stopped him. One, she was new to... witchcraft and likely would have less of an idea of what the spells were than he did. There was also the fact that she was an innocent and hearing that someone had taken a life would not be easy. He hoped that Giles could talk some sense into the Slayer group.

A knock on the door brought him out of his musings. He looked towards it and his eye shone blue. He smiled slightly. Who said fate didn't have a sense of humour?

"Come in Willow," he called out. He frowned for a moment before laughing. He really was becoming Albus Dumbledore. That was a flattering yet disturbing thought.

"How did you know it was me?" Willow asked as she opened the door, carrying a small box. Harry was about to give her a vague answer but stopped when he saw the look on her face as she scanned his apartment. He smirked slightly and leant back in his chair.

The apartment now looked drastically different than when he'd moved in. The place had been cold and sterile, the walls, floors and chairs, gray. There had been the slightest hint of blue and white every so often, but it still felt cold. To fix that he'd done what he could in order to make his home as Gryffindor-like as possible.

The main room that consisted of a lounge and kitchen was now at least double the size it had been. The rectangular room was now circular. The walls were now coloured in red and gold, as was the carpet and the furniture. The doors and kitchen units that had been a gray coloured plastic now looked like stained wood.

His proudest achievement had been the fireplace he managed to create. That had taken a bit of thought, but it now worked perfectly, vanishing the smoke as it rose to accommodate the fact that he was in a second floor apartment. It wouldn't do to fill the two floors above him with smoke. His couches, transfigured to look just like those in Gryffindor tower surrounded it.

It looked like home and he was quite proud of it. He'd never worked out why people didn't use magic like this more often. It didn't cost people to use it and improved their home lives, so why ignore it? Most people with magic had no common sense. Hermione said that they were given magic instead.

"What... what happened?" Willow asked, still in awe.

Harry shrugged. "I changed it to look like home," he told her. "I do my best thinking if I'm somewhere I feel comfortable." Several hours into his research of the gem he had gotten restless and decided that change was needed.

"Did you live in a palace?" she asked, coming into the room and absently shutting the door behind her.

Harry smiled at the girl, "A castle, if you remember. This is what my common room looked like."

"Wow," she muttered. "This musta taken a lot of magic."

Harry nodded slightly. Whilst the spells didn't take much power to cast, he'd cast a bit more than most would have been able to. "A bit," he told her. He shut his journal. "What can I do for you Willow?" he asked.

She blinked. "Oh!" She placed the box down on the table in the only place that wasn't drowning in books. "I wanted to say that everyone was sorry for how they reacted yesterday."

Harry shrugged, not really bothered. "It's fine. People never react well to that news."

She frowned, "It's not. All you've done is help us since you came here, even when you didn't need to. We don't know what was happening in your world, so we shouldn't have made judgements."

Harry raised an eyebrow. She'd said that all very quickly. He hadn't heard a stream of consciousness like that since the early days of Hermione. "Apology accepted," Harry told her. He tilted his head slightly, "Why were you nominated to talk with me?" He wondered if the others were afraid to come over.

She frowned again, "Well, you don't know Xander. Not that you really know us, but you've met him less. Giles' is being all stiff upper lip Britishy and Buffy's still a bit... sad."

"Britishy?" Harry asked with a smirk. He hadn't heard that word before. Willow just shrugged, looking perfectly comfortable. "So what happened to Buffy to put her out of sorts?" Harry asked. "If you don't mind me asking," he added quickly.

"She's pining over some poop-head. She spent the night with him and he never called and now he's already all over another girl. She thinks there's something wrong with her for him to not want her."

Harry blinked in surprise, not having suspected that answer and considering what it was, to even be told. "Um, isn't that sort of thing _really_ personal? You've known me for a few days so why tell me?"

Willow smiled, "You got her out of her Angel-funk yesterday with the hair trick and she told us that you seem to understand each other. I thought you might be able to help her again."

"She said we understood each other?" Harry asked, surprised.

"She'd said it was because you were both 'Chosen' to do what you had to. She's usually really set against anyone taking a human life, but when you said it, she considered it and argued in your favour." Willow looked down slightly, breaking eye contact. "I was all set to call you murderer but she made me see it otherwise. I know rules are different during wars, but her telling me it was different helped."

Harry just looked at the girl with his mouth open slightly. "Um... right. Ok," he said a moment. He'd really made that much of an impression on Buffy so quickly? It seemed a little farfetched, but she hadn't been in the most stable mind when he'd spoken to her. "Sure, and, thanks for telling me that," he said, unsure of what else to say. This was just further proof of something Ron frequently said. '_Girl's are mental! The whole lot of them!_'

She smiled brightly at him, "You're welcome."

He shook his head, trying to restore some order to his mind. "So, what's in the box?" he asked looking down at the little cardboard box.

The look on her face indicated that she had clearly forgotten about it, "Oh! That was my peace offering. You said you were interested in Soul magic, so this was what I used return Angel's soul. I thought you might want to have a look at it."

Harry smiled and opened the box. There were several candles that he was sure were just normal candles. There was a sheet of paper with what was undoubtedly a spell written on it. It was a blend between Latin and English. A white orb that seemed to glow with magic sat in a cushioned steel box. He could tell, from just a touch, that it was powerful. "What's this?" Harry asked as he examined the orb carefully.

"It's the Orb of Thesulah," Willow told him. "It's able to summon souls back from the Netherworld. I don't know how it does this, but it worked when we used it on Angel. That's why we keep it around, in case we need to re-soul him again."

"I like it," Harry told her, turning it around in his hand. He didn't bother scanning it with his wand. This was clearly far more powerful than the Gem of Amarra and would take weeks to unravel. He definitely hoped he would get a chance. "How rare are these?" Harry asked. If he could get one for himself...

"Pretty rare I think," Willow said.

"You think you could ask if he could find anymore? I wouldn't mind having one of these," Harry told, his eyes focused on the orb again.

"Sure!" Willow told him. "'Though, you could just go to the Magic Shop and ask them. They're usually good a finding things like this."

"The Magic Shop?" Harry asked. He'd seen that shop on his investigation of the town and merely brushed it off as a shop that did card tricks and slight-of-hand illusions. "They sell actual magic stuff in the middle of a high street and nobody notices?" he asked incredulously.

Willow nodded, "Sure. Most people don't believe in magic so they just think it's a silly junk shop, but I get lots of magic stuff there for spells and potions and stuff."

Harry just stared at the red head for a moment before he sighed and slumped down in his chair, "I've decided that this world is madder than mine." He didn't bother using the names he'd given the dimensions as he'd yet to let anyone else in on this bit of information.

"I think it's just Sunnydale," Willow told him, looking pleased to acknowledge how weird her home town is.

"Right," Harry said. "Well, I'll have a look in that shop tomorrow then."

Something else sprung to mind, "Has Giles said anything about getting me home?"

Willow shook her head solemnly, "We're still looking, but this is a whole new thing and we can't really talk to anyone else for help. They wouldn't want you to leave and Giles says they'd be after your wand thingy."

Harry choked on his tongue at her words. They were by no means deliberate, but that still didn't change the words. Willow looked confused for a moment before her eyes unfocused slightly. It was something Hermione did when trying to remember past conversations. Her eyes widened and she blushed. "I... I didn't mean... I mean..."

"Thank you for bringing the Orb over," Harry said to her with a smile.

She nodded quickly and stood up. "Bye Harry!" she shouted as she left. Harry just laughed and shook his head, packing up the Orb of Thesulah again. He'd get a chance to look at that later, but for now he'd focus on the Gem.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Having gotten four hours of vision and nightmare filled sleep at what could only be described as 'morning' Harry left his apartment for a morning run. After his run he made his way to The Magic Shop. He opened the door and a bell jingled above his head. A man in his mid fifties with greying brown hair approached him. "Welcome to the Magic Shop. I'm Mr Bogarty. How can I help you today?"

"Er, yeah," Harry said distractedly. He looked around the room. Well, it certainly looked like an actual magic shop, although there was undoubtedly a large amount of touristy type things for sale. He noticed a few things that could be called legitimate. There were jars of things that were undoubtedly potion ingredients; eyes and toenails from various creatures. There were crystal balls and other things. He'd take a look at this place with his aura sight when he could.

"I was looking for an Orb of Thesula and anything that relates to soul magic," Harry told the man.

The man nodded. "I had one of those Orbs a year or two back, but some school teacher bought that from me," Bogarty told Harry.

Harry nodded, "I know who did, and he's given me a look at it, which is why I wanted one for myself. You don't have one?"

"Not in stock young man, but if you wanted one and had the money, I'm sure I'd be able to locate one for you," Bogarty promised.

Harry smiled at the man, "Money's not an object and I would very much like one."

Bogarty smiled, "Then come with me and I'll get some details from you."

Harry followed the man down the long shop to the counter near the far end against the right wall. The man moved behind it and opened up a ledger. "Now, you're name?" Bogarty asked. Harry gave the man a few details. "And a contact number for when it arrives?"

That had Harry at a loss. He had no idea what his address was and he had even less of a clue what his phone number was. "Um, I just moved here and I'm not too sure." An idea occurred to him, "You don't know Mr. Giles or Willow... something-or-other?" He couldn't remember her surname. It had something to do with Roses, but other than that he was at a loss.

"Rupert and Miss Rosenberg?" Bogarty asked with a laugh.

Harry nodded, guessing that Rupert was enough of an English name that it could be Giles first name. "If you could contact one of them that would be fine. They can reach me."

"Of course," Bogarty said with a laugh. "I should have known."

"Oh?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yes, two of my best customers," Bogarty said. "Miss Rosenberg is here every other week looking for something new. Not quite as much as Miss Maclay, but then, she's just new at the craft." Harry marked the name Miss Maclay in his mind for later. She could be someone he could learn a thing or two about this type of magic. As the man had said, Willow was only new to this. "Now, what else was it you wanted?"

"Books on soul magic," Harry said. If he had asked for books like this in Diagon Alley he would likely have been hexed out of the shop and called a dark wizard. Prejudice's ruined some truly great magiks.

"I think I have a few things like that through the back," Bogarty said. He looked back and forth, exaggeratingly looking for eavesdroppers. He leaned over to Harry, "Don't tell anyone, but most of the stuff up here is for the sceptics and the non-believes. The good stuff is downstairs."

Harry smiled slightly. "I'd guessed as much. What makes you think you think I'm not a pretender?" Harry asked.

"Friends with Miss Rosenburg?" he asked with a laugh. "She barely tolerates those who think this is a joke. You should see her face when people like that come in here. She can barely stop herself from arguing with them."

Harry smiled, "I had another friend like that. It was always fun to push her just to get her to twitch."

He laughed again, "I imagine. Now, it was just the soul magic books?"

"For now," Harry said.

"Well, I'll be back in a few minutes. Feel free to look around for anything else that catches your eye." He then turned and disappeared through a door to his right. Harry shrugged and looked around the room. His eye shone blue and he examined each item in the room. There was nothing especially powerful and only around 1/6th of the items had an aura. It was actually more than he suspected to tell the truth. He heard the door behind him open and his eye turned back to its normal colour.

"Did you find anything?" the shop keeper asked.

Harry shook his head. "As you said, a lot of this stuff is for tourists. Perhaps a sixth of what you have up there is intrinsically magical. I just need knowledge."

"Of course. I shouldn't have expected you to be fooled by some of my wears. Now, I have these books that might interest you," Bogarty said, placing three worn and torn leather books onto the counter.

Harry picked up the first one and flicked through it. He wasn't looking for anything in particular, but seeing what jumped out at him. The first book had a few interesting things in it at first glance, as did the other two. He placed them back on the counter, "I'll take them."

Bogarty smiled, "Excellent. He paused, "Now, these books are from my rarer collection..."

Harry was sure he interpreted that correctly. What Bogart had said was 'These _are really expensive._' "How much?" Harry asked.

"One hundred and thirty dollars each I'm afraid," the shop keep said.

Harry shrugged and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He dropped four hundred on the counter. Bogarty, seeing just how much money was left in Harry's wallet just stared. "I had rich parents," Harry said in way of explanation. He hadn't known how much money he'd need when he came here, so he'd made sure to replicate a lot of cash; enough to buy a cheap, yet new car at the very least.

"Well, thank you. I hope you enjoy the books."

"I will," Harry told him.

"Do be careful with them though," the shop keeper told him seriously. "The soul was meant to stay as it was and messing around with that magic can be very dangerous."

"I know," Harry told the man, knowing better than most just how soul magic could ruin a life. Voldemort's had done so to his.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Having been inside studying the Gem of Amarra for almost two days, Harry was glad to be outside again. Whilst he wanted to read the books he'd bought, outside was too tempting for now. Actually, Quidditch was the most tempting thing, but he'd didn't particularly have an opponent and it was broad daylight in a muggle town. Instead, he just opted to walk around Sunnydale again. It amazed him that he could always find something new in this small town.

The only two areas he hadn't explored yet were the destroyed High School and the University.

The school, situated right in the centre of the town, gave off a lot of magic that made him feel ill the nearer he got. He had no intention of going inside and every intention of avoiding it. He didn't know what the Hellmouth magic was doing to him, but it didn't feel good.

He opted to see the University that Buffy and Willow attended. It was on the far edge of town and was barely even part of Sunnydale. One of the dorms was literally on the town border. It was still early morning and lots of people were bustling about, getting ready for class or just chatting with each other. He spotted a familiar face sitting on a bench by herself staring off at... well, he couldn't quite make it out. She looked up as he approached. That was curious, as his footsteps were silenced.

He sat down next to her, "How did you know I was here? You didn't hear me."

"Why is that?" Buffy asked.

"My boots. They're silenced. You though, you looked up as I got near."

Buffy shrugged, "I guess I can feel when you're close. The air feels different."

"Oh?"

"It's not like when I saw you in the graveyard. I got the feeling then that the last thing I'd ever want to do, or probably would do, was fight with you. Now, it's just like a buzz."

Harry nodded, "When I met you I was in battle mode. Had you approached me instead of turning back, well, you would have regretted it."

"Really?" Buffy asked, a bit of fire in her voice. She seemed to like challenging him when he said this.

He rolled his eyes but smiled, "Are we going to have to get into a fight just so I can prove that I can beat you?"

"I'll spar with you," Buffy said. "But I want a turn at you without you using your magic stick."

"Wand," Harry told her. She just smirked at him. He rolled his eyes again, "So what were you looking at?" he asked, looking over to where she'd been looking before he turned up. From where he sat now he could see a dark haired teenager chatting with a short brunette in a pink top.

"Nothing," she told him, the fire in her voice dying.

"If that's who I think it is, he's not worth your time," Harry told her.

She turned to him quickly, "What?"

"Don't be mad at her, but Willow mentioned that this guy had used you and you were upset about it."

"Why would she tell you that?" Buffy asked, shocked and a little hurt.

Harry shrugged. "She thought I might be able to help like I apparently did the other day."

Buffy smiled slightly, "You're going to turn my hair pink and get me to chase you again?"

Harry shrugged again, this time with a smile. "Unless you have another colour you'd prefer?" He reached his hand over to her head like he'd done when he changed her hair colour. She slapped his hand away. He grinned. "No, the hair colour thing has been done and that was the most I could do without making it obvious. With a clean shot, the sky's the limit."

"So want to help me get revenge on him?" Buffy asked.

Harry shrugged, "I've known some pranksters in my time. I have a whole arsenal of spells for embarrassing situations ready."

"And you'd never use them on me, would you?" Buffy asked, narrowing her eyes.

Harry grinned at her, "The spells need to be earned. You've not earned them, yet." He turned to the dark haired teenager that was getting nearer. Harry could see the guy had his arm around the girl. "He has."

Buffy looked thoughtful, but she shook her head. "No. He doesn't deserve it," she told him.

Harry jus stared at her. "There's nothing wrong you with you, you know? I told you the other day that I've enjoyed speaking with you. More importantly, you're a Chosen One," Harry told her.

Buffy looked at him oddly, "Well, duh!"

Harry rolled his eyes again, "What I mean is we're always in danger. Someone always wants to kill us. As morbid as this is, you never know when a day will be your last so you need to do your best to enjoy yourself. This might sound odd, but you need to force yourself to do that."

"Force myself to have fun?" Buffy asked, still looking at Harry oddly, but not with a smile.

Harry smiled back, seeing that he was getting to her, "Yeah. Like the prophecy that controlled my life said, 'neither can live while the other survives.' I've always tried to live, no matter what that said. You stop doing that and you might as well just lie down and not get back up."

Buffy really thought about what he'd said. She took a deep breath and smiled before turning to the dark haired guy. She glanced at Harry, "What have you got, Potter?"

Harry grinned at her; he'd corrupted another one. "We'll start off slow," Harry told. He unsheathed his wand and pointed it towards the guy. "What's his name by the way?"

"Parker," Buffy said.

"Right then. '_Cadere_,'" Harry cast with a whisper, verbalising the spell for Buffy's sake. The spell cast no light but hit Parker directly in the leg. He stumbled and fell flat on his face, much to the amusement of everyone around him. Embarrassed, Parker pushed himself back onto his feet. He smiled at everyone around him, trying to play it off. That wouldn't do.

Harry glanced over at Buffy who had a small vindictive smile on her face. "What do I do now?" Harry asked her, looking for suggestions. This wasn't his revenge, so asking was a nicety that needed to be observed.

"I don't know," Buffy said. "You're apparently the expert at this stuff."

"Not an expert, I've just watched the experts. Let's try this."

Harry second spell hit Parker dead on and he let rip a fart loud enough that it was heard from a fair distance around the area. Loud laughter was heard and people began to point at Parker. The boy's face had gone so red Harry wouldn't be surprised if he past out. A look at Buffy made his day. She was giggling beside him, her hand over her mouth and her eyes alight. What do you know, he was good at cheering her up?

The girl Parker was with said something to him, her face disgusted, before storming away. Parker seemed at a complete loss for what to. He stood still for a moment before turning and quickly walking away. Harry cast one last spell before the guy vanished, deliberately overpowering it. It was a cruel spell to use on any guy, but he was feeling vindictive and hell, he was on holiday.

There was no Ministry of Magic here to arrest him for muggle bating.

Buffy, still giggling managed to ask a question, "What… what was that last spell? It didn't do anything."

Harry grinned at her, "Ah, but it did. That was an expertly cast, if greatly overpowered Flaccid Hex."

She blinked in confusion before her eyes widened. "You mean he…?" she asked.

"For about a month," Harry told her. "It's meant to last six hours, but I got you to smile, so it was worth it."

She glanced down and blushed slightly. "Thanks Harry," she said to him. He knew she didn't mean about the cursing Parker.

Harry nodded and relaxed into the bench. "No problem. Now, I've got nothing to do, so how about you give me the native's tour of this town?"

Buffy looked disappointed. "I've got a full day of class. How about we reschedule for the weekend?"

"Sounds good," Harry told her. He quickly ran through what he wanted to do today and came up empty apart from one think. Harry frowned again, "I hate to bring this up when you're smiling again, but would you be able to write a quick note to this Angel guy so that when I turn up with the Gem he knows it's from you?"

Her smiled faded slightly but still remained. "Yeah," she said. "Hold on." She rummaged through her back and pulled out a notebook and pen. She stared at it long and hard before taking a deep breath. She wrote for a few minutes, scoring out lines and words as she did. She was clearly struggling with it. Finally, she put her pen away and folded up the note. "You won't read it?" Buffy asked.

"It doesn't tell him to kill me on sight does it?" Harry asked with a small smile.

Buffy's brow creased as though she was in deep though. "I don't _think_ I wrote that," she told him. The look was very cute on her.

Harry took the note from her and slid it into his back pocket, "Good to know." A thought occurred to him, "You don't happen to know a girl with the surname Maclay do you?" he asked.

Buffy thought about it but shook her head, "Never heard of her. Why?"

"Her name came up in a conversation I had earlier. Was curious. Right, so I'll see you later?"

"Yeah." She paused. "Come see me when you get back?" she asked.

Having a strong feeling that her wanting to see him was to do with him seeing her ex-boyfriend later on, he nodded. "See you then." Making sure no one was watching him, he Disapparated from the University.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Making a quick stop back at his apartment to pick up the Orb of Thesula, he Apparated to the front door of Giles apartment. He knocked and waited for the elder English man to answer. It only took a minute. He was dressed casually and didn't appear to have been awake for long. "Ah, um, Harry. What can I do for you?"

Harry held up the box he was carrying. "Just returning this to you," Harry told him.

"Ah, well, of course." Giles stood back and allowed Harry entrance. "Um, what did you think of it?" he asked.

"Fascinating, but far too complicated for me to work out in such a short period of time. Willow mentioned the Magic Box might have another, so I have one on order now," Harry told him, placing the box on the kitchen counter.

"Yes, I imagine you'll have your own in no time then. Mr. Bogarty has always been good at finding magical items when we have need for them."

"Good to know," Harry said.

"If I might ask why you're here so early this morning?" Giles asked.

Harry pulled out the Gem of Amarra from his pocket that was now resealed inside its golden ring. "I've finished looking at this, so I thought I'd drop it off with that Angel guy."

"Ah, yes," Giles said. "Did you learn anything interesting about it?"

Harry nodded, "Lots of things. Not that I understand much of it, but I'm sure someone will when I get back home. Speaking of, how's that going?"

Giles looked uncomfortable, "Ah, well, I've not had much success on that front yet, but I'm optimistic."

Harry nodded; he wasn't in any hurry to get home, "Well, let me know when you do."

"Of course," Giles promised. "I suspect you're looking for where you can find Angel?" Harry nodded. "Would me, uh, pointing out the address on a map, be sufficient?"

"Depending on the map, yeah, I should be able to manage," Harry told him. Apparating-by-map was not an easy method of Apparition to learn. Doing so required a lot of concentration, power, and most importantly, the belief that you could do it. Harry knew he could. "I also wanted a bit more information on this guy. I could tell he wasn't a favourite person around here and I prefer not to run into a situation uninformed." '_These days_,' Harry silently added.

"I...I... of course," Giles said. "What, what makes you think that he wasn't particularly well liked here?"

"Well, the awkward silence that let to Buffy leaving here could have been ignored as a bad case of a break-up, but the look on everyone else's face when Buffy mentioned giving a ring of immortality to this guy, well, that spoke for itself."

"Yes, I suppose it would," Giles said with a sigh. "Well, I see no reason not to tell you." He cleaned his glasses and moved over to a book shelf. "Before Angel had his soul returned to him he went by the name of Angelus and was part of a group of vampires known as the Scourge of Europe. Despite not being particularly old by vampiric standards, he was powerful, ruthless and feared by most who knew of what happened in the night."

Giles pulled a thick book from a lower shelf and moved it over to his coffee table. He sat down and opened the book. "In 1898, when in Romania with his Sire, he killed the favourite daughter of a Gypsy clan, and, as punishment, had his soul returned. His conscience was returned and the guilt of what the demon in his body had done overwhelmed him."

Giles found the page he was looking for and began to examine it more closely. "Little is known about what happened from then but four years ago he appeared in Sunnydale. He and Buffy fell in love and one her 17th birthday Angel reached a moment of perfect happiness and lost his soul once again, turning him back into Angelus."

Giles sighed and he looked to be struggling to tell the story. He decided to help the man out. "What counts as perfect happiness?" Harry asked.

Giles looked decidedly uncomfortable, "Um, yes, well, Buffy and Angel, well, t-they, that is to say..."

"Ah," Harry muttered with a small smile. "I think I've worked out what you were so eloquently trying to say."

"Yes, thank you," Giles muttered, looking pleased he hadn't had to say what happened out loud. "Anyway, Angelus proved to be difficult to stop given Buffy's reluctance to fight him, but eventually we prevailed and returned his soul. He stuck around for another year before deciding it was in Buffy's best interest that he not be around. Ah, here it is." Giles pointed at the map and Harry moved over to have a look.

As he examined the map and the surrounding area of where Angel lived he thought about what Giles had said. There had clearly been a lot missed out, like what happened all of last year, and what had affected him so badly when Angel lost his soul.

This Happiness Clause that Angel suffered from would likely be a good thing for him, Harry thought. He wanted to examine Angel and see what soul magic had affected him, but he didn't know if this vampire would even let him. Knowing a good deal about Soul magic, Harry would, likely, be able to anchor Angel's soul to this world, removing the worry that he might lose it again. There was even a chance he could remove the curse entirely. He was looking forward to this.

"I've only spoken with Angel once since he left here. He called to mention that he was starting a detective agency. That will likely be where you'll find him."

"Alright," Harry said. He pulled out his wand and duplicated the page from the map. He folded it and put it in his pocket. "That should be enough then," Harry said as he stood. Giles put the map back in its bookcase.

"You're taking it to him now?" Giles asked.

Harry nodded, "In a few hours. I'll check over the ring once more though."

Giles nodded and a thought occurred to him, "Harry, if I might ask... why are you as ok with this as you appear to be? From what you told us, vampires back in your world were hunting you and the ones here are demons. You seem to be oddly alright with this."

Harry shrugged, "Not all the vampires back home were trying to kill me. A few of the smaller covens, the poorer ones, were quite grateful that I'd destroyed one of the larger ones. I know a few good vampires back home. As long as someone only fights for the good of society and doesn't try commit murder, I've got no problem with them." Harry sheathed his wand, "I don't even have a problem with vampires drinking from humans, as long as they don't take too much. It's all survival instincts in the end. They can't help what they are."

Giles looked thoroughly flummoxed at what Harry had said. He just grinned at the stunned man. "Thanks for the map," he said and with a small crack, Disapparated.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Apparating into a small alleyway, Harry scanned his surroundings with his wand drawn. Apparating to a location that you had never been that was in the middle of a muggle city came with the risk of a muggle seeing you. Harry, apt enough at Obliviating people and removing memories was prepared for that. No one saw him so he sheathed his wand and exited the alley.

He looked around him and pulled out his map. It certainly looked like it could be Los Angeles and he knew that he hadn't Apparated far, but he still wasn't sure.

Looking at the map and comparing it to some of the buildings he saw around him, he decided he was exactly where he had aimed for.

Pleased with himself, he looked around trying to spot the building that Angel was meant to be in. After only walking down the street for 20ft he found the correct place. It was a large building, looking a tad run down. The double doors, which were in serious need of a good varnishing, were surrounded by a large stone arch that gave the building quite an imposing look. There was nothing to indicate that it was a detective agency, or anything for that matter.

He walked up the three steps that led to the door and reached up to knock. He stopped himself. If this was a detective agency, he wouldn't need to knock. Shrugging, he quietly opened the doors and walked in. Inside, despite being simplistic, looked well organised and clean. It was brightly lit, something decidedly odd if a vampire ran this place. Maybe he was in the wrong building?

He continued forward and found a beautiful young woman, likely a similar age to Buffy and her friends, sitting at a computer. Her long, straight brown hair fell past her shoulders. She was frowning at the keyboard and typing with just the index finger of her right hand. There was a book beside her that he could clearly see was not the type to be found in a normal library. She hadn't noticed him. He cleared his throat.

"What is it now Angel?" she asked without looking up from what she was doing.

Harry nodded to himself; that was proof he was in the right place. He drew his wand and conjured a wooden seat in front of the desk she was sitting at. The chair was practically a copy of the one she was in. He dropped into it so that the he was resting his arms on the chair's back. She looked up in annoyance. "What are you... oh. Oh! Hi. Welcome to Angel Investigations," she said with a bright and beautiful smile as she noticed him.

"Hi. I'm Harry," he said with a smile.

The brunette licked her lips as she looked at him and he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I'm Cordelia," she said, holding out her hand. "Are you looking to hire us?" she asked; her eyes hopeful.

"'Afraid not," Harry said.

"Oh," she said dejected.

"I am looking for Angel though."

"You know Angel?" Cordelia asked.

Harry shook his head, "Never met him before, but I'm delivering something from one of my friends. You know where Sunnydale is?"

She looked at him as though he'd gone mad, "Duh! I'm from there."

Unsure of how he was supposed to have known that he continued on. "So do you know Buffy Summers?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, "Queen Buffy has you running her errands does she?" She clearly held little love the blonde Slayer.

Harry just smiled and relaxed on his chair, "I volunteered. I had reasons for wanting to come here."

"Oh?" she asked, curious. "And what would they be?"

"I'd have to speak to him about that," Harry told her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You're not a Watcher, are you?"

Harry sighed, "Why is it that everyone I've met in California thinks I'm a Watcher?"

"The English accent isn't really that subtle and most of the English guys I've ever met are Watchers."

Harry decided that these Californians needed to get out more. "Well, I promise I'm not."

With a sigh she pushed herself to her feet. "I'll go find him for you."

Harry smiled warmly at her, "Thank you."

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment and she appeared to be sizing him up. She turned and let the room, proceeding down some stairs.

Harry stood and pulled off his leather duster, draping it across the back of his conjured chair. He moved to have a look at the book on the desk when an Irish voice called out from near the front door. "Princess, you around?"

He came into sight. "Prin... where's Cordelia?" he asked. He was short, with short brown hair and a brown leather jacket.

Harry pointed to where Cordelia had gone, "She went to get Angel for me."

"Oh, right." He walked up to Harry and shook his hand. "I'm Doyle."

"Harry."

"You're English?" he asked.

"And you're Irish," Harry said. "You're not going to accuse me of being a Watcher?"

Doyle snorted, "Nah. Unlike the rest of these lot, I understand that not everyone with an English accent works for them. There are plenty of Irish folk around, but most of them have never seen an Englishman."

"Then it's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said with a smile, glad someone didn't think he was a Watcher. He didn't even know what was so bad about them, but he endeavoured to find out.

Doyle took a seat on the desk Cordelia had been working on. He glanced at the book before shutting it and dumping it back down. "Usless drivel," he muttered before looking back to Harry. "So how d'you know Angel?"

"Don't," Harry said. "Just delivering something from a friend of his from Sunnydale."

"That Buffy chick he's always moping about?" Doyle asked, interested.

Harry nodded, "Unless there are other girls around here named Buffy, probably the same girl." He frowned. "Buffy isn't a common name here is it?" He had no idea.

Doyle grinned, "I wouldn't be surprised if she was the only girl in the world with that name."

Footsteps cut off Harry's next words. He turned to see Cordelia and tall, pale guy man dressed in black follow her. His dark brown hair was spiked up in such a way that Harry couldn't help but look at it oddly. Why anyone would style their hair like that was beyond him, but how someone could style their hair like when they had no reflection confused him greatly. "Doyle," the guy, Angel, Harry guessed said with a small smile.

"Morning Angel. Up late last night?" Doyle asked from his place on the desk. Cordelia moved around back to where she'd been sitting when Harry had walked in and shoved him. He slipped to his feet. "Morning to you too Princess," he remarked with a charming smile.

"It's too early Doyle," she muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"It's past noon," Doyle told her. "I was here looking to see if you wanted to come to lunch."

"With you?" Cordelia asked condescendingly. "As if."

"Children," Angel chided. They stopped arguing. He turned to Harry, "I'm Angel."

"Harry," Harry repeated.

"Cordelia says you have something for me?" he asked.

"A few things perhaps," Harry said. He picked up his 'new' leather jacket and pulled two things from an inside pocket.

"That's Spike's," Angel muttered, looking at Harry oddly.

"I knew I recognised it!" Cordelia exclaimed.

"You're grand-childe?" Doyle asked in confusion. Angel nodded, still looking at Harry.

Harry shrugged, "I bumped into him. He annoyed me, so I took his jacket as penance."

They all blinked in surprise. "He annoyed you so you stole his favourite possession of the last 30 years?" Angel asked disbelievingly.

Harry nodded and found what he was looking for. "My last jacket got ruined and I hadn't got another one yet. I liked his. I also took his fags, lighter and this," he told the group and handed Angel the gold ring with the green gem. Angel took it from him and his group leaned in to have a look.

Doyle's eyes widened, "Wait a minute, is that what I think it is?"

"It's the Gem of Amara," Angel said quietly, looking at the ring as though it might bite him. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"Buffy wanted you to have it. This as well," Harry told him and handed over the folded piece of paper that Buffy wrote. True to his word, he hadn't looked at it.

Angel reached for it and Harry saw his hand shake slightly. "This is from Buffy?" he asked.

Harry nodded, "As I was handing over something that's meant to be a myth, I thought having some proof that it was coming from someone you knew would be a good thing."

"Oh," Angel said, making no move to open the note.

"Well, come on then," Cordelia said impatiently. "Open it." She turned to Harry, "How is good old Buffy?"

"Fine," Harry said. She wasn't particularly 'fine', but he didn't know how to verbalise how she was doing.

"What are you waiting for, man?" Doyle asked, as impatient as Cordelia was.

She turned to Doyle and looked at him oddly, "Okay, you're getting weird about this ring. Since when did you go all Versace about accessorizing?"

"Since the accessory is priceless and renders its wearer 100 percent unkillable if he's a vampire," Doyle told her, still looking at the ring.

"Unkillable? Whew. You mean not even stakes?" Cordelia asked in surprise.

"Not nothing. Not stakes, not fire, and the best thing is not even sunlight."

"Except magic," Harry added. "That was how I got it from the Malfoy-wannabe."

"Spike had this?" Angel asked.

Harry nodded, "I saw him walking around in the sunlight and was curious. I talked to him, stole his jacket, dumped him down a sewage drain and stole the ring."

"So he's still out there?" Angel asked.

Harry shrugged, "Probably."

"Come on Angel," Doyle said. "Put the ring on. I mean just think of it man. Poolside tanning, bargain matinees, - plus I know a couple of strip clubs that have a fabulous luncheon buffet, I mean, it's... I've heard." He trailed off looking uncomfortably as Cordelia shot him an annoyed look.

"Maybe later," Angel said. He looked up at Harry, "You said you had something else?"

"Sort of," Harry told him. "Nothing from Sunnydale. This is me helping you out with something you need for information that I want."

"Oh?" Angel asked.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, but it doesn't need to be talked about now. Read your note, try on your ring and then we can discuss it."

"Well, I'm still going to celebrate with a drink down at the pub," Doyle informed the room.

"You mind if tag along?" Harry asked.

"The more the merrier," Doyle told him with a smile.

"You coming Princess?" Doyle asked the girl next to him.

A glance at Angel who was still staring at the note in his hand convinced her that getting out of here was a good idea. "Sure, why not?"

Doyle turned to leave with Harry close behind him. "You ok?" she asked Angel softly.

He glanced up at her and nodded. "I'll be fine. Go on," he said with a nod towards Harry and Doyle. She nodded and left with Doyle and Harry.

**OoOoOoOoO**

"An Englishman, an Irishman and an American walk into a bar," Harry muttered as they entered the pub that Doyle had let them too.

Cordelia snorted at his comment, "That was so lame."

"Would've worked if you were Scottish Princess," Doyle told her.

"Please! I wouldn't last five minutes in Scotland. No, I'm fine here in Sunny L.A." She looked thoughtful, "Although, I do look cute in tartan."

"You look good anything," Doyle told her with a flirtatious grin.

Cordelia nodded, although she ignored his smile. "True."

"What you having then?" Doyle asked the group. From the greetings he'd received from the barman, Doyle was a regular here.

Harry looked over the bar and read the names of each of the unfamiliar beers. He recognised a few, but only one that he liked. "Pint of Guinness," he said to Doyle. "Next round's mine."

"Good choice, good choice," Doyle muttered and took Cordelia's order as well. They moved over to a booth and sat down.

"So what are you then?" Cordelia asked bluntly. "A sorcerer or a warlock or something?"

"I'm a wizard," Harry told her, taking a drink from his pint.

"A wizard?" Doyle asked. "It's not often you get people using that name. Most folk prefer warlock."

Harry considered how much to tell them. If Angel did take him up on his offer to let him examine the magic that had been used to retrieve his soul, they would find out that he wasn't a normal magic user. Doyle seemed like a good guy and Cordelia seemed... not too bad. "I'm from another dimension. I'm sort of stranded here until I can find a way home, and in my world, male magic users are wizards."

"Another dimension, eh?" Doyle asked, not at all fazed. "From what I hear it's pretty easy t jump back and forth between dimensions if you know where you want to go."

"I sort of fell through a modified Hellmouth though, so no one's really sure that sending me back will be easy."

Doyle looked somewhat impressed, "Haven't heard of that happenin' before."

"Hasn't your dimension ever heard of a hairbrush?" Cordelia asked, looking at his hair.

Harry laughed, "Not force of magic is powerful enough to do anything with my hair and I have it on good authority that my hair is very handsome."

"Was the girl blind?" Cordelia asked scathingly. "I mean, sure, with a bit of style it wouldn't look too bad, but it just looks like a rats nest."

Harry shrugged, "I've tried, but nothing works."

She rolled her eyes, "Then you clearly don't know the right people. My stylist would have you sorted out in minutes. There would be a finder's fee of course."

"Think you could?" Harry asked curiously. He'd learned to live with his hair, but a bit of order wouldn't be amiss.

She blinked, not having suspected that answer. "You're serious? You want me to set you up?"

Harry shrugged, "If you think they can do something, sure, why not?"

"Well then, it's your lucky day," Cordelia told him with a smile.

"Do we have to talk about hair-care?" Doyle asked. "That's not good pub talk." He turned to Harry, "What I want to know is how you got that ring of Spike. From everything I've heard about that ring, that'd be no easy thing."

For the next several hours Harry talked with Doyle and Cordelia, bantering back and forth. Doyle and Cordelia's relationship was quite amusing to watch. They both obviously liked each other, although Cordelia seemed to just like mocking Doyle.

Harry told them about his dimension and the short version of how he came to be here and what he'd done so far. The grin of Cordelia's face when he had told her about changing Buffy's hair still made the hair on his neck stand on end even after several hours.

Doyle, who had a lot of contacts with the seedier parts of the city had told Harry that, if he wanted, he could set him up with bank account and some ID in case he wanted it. Harry was considering it. He really didn't know how long he was going to be here, and that sort of stuff might come in handy, especially the bank account.

There reached a point when having mountains of cash inside your apartment became suspicious and odd, after all.

He and Doyle had had several pints, although, with magic in his blood Harry was far from drunk when Doyle looked over to the open front door of the bar quickly. He grinned. "Angel! Over 'ere!"

Angel, the vampire, was standing in direct sunlight, looking rather out of place. Having spotted Doyle before the man had shouted he walked over to them and pulled out the seat.

"You're wearing the ring?" Cordelia asked with a bright smile.

Angel nodded with the smallest of smiles, "It's incredible. I've walking outside for an hour. I caught your scent in here and, well..."

"So how does it feel man?" Doyle asked. "How's being out in the sun for the first time in 200 years feel?"

"It'll take some getting use to," Angel told them. He turned to Harry, "Thank you for bringing it, and... and for the note."

Harry nodded. "It wasn't a problem."

"So what did Buffy have to say?" Cordelia asked curiously.

Angel sat in silence for a minute, staring down at the table in front of him. "She told me she wanted me to wear it. That she wanted me to be safe."

"Oh, well, the girl has some sense at least," Cordelia remarked. Doyle shot her a warning look for the comment. "What?" she asked, completely oblivious to Angels look.

"Can I get you a drink?" Harry asked Angel. It was his turn to be buy the next round.

Angel shook his head, "I don't drink."

Harry opened his mouth to say something before a small smile crossed his face. "I'll be right back," he told the group. With a glance around him to make sure no one was looking he Disapparated out of the bar. A minute later he Apparated back with a small clear bag in his hand.

"Where did you go?" Cordelia asked looking at him oddly.

"Back to Sunnydale to pick something up," Harry told them, opening the bag.

"You can teleport?" Angel asked in surprise. "From here to Sunnydale?"

"It's how I got here," Harry told him.

"I thought you were a warlock or something," Angel said, confused.

"A wizard, and well, it's a long story."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "He's a dimensional travelling wizard that fell through a Hellmouth and is stuck here."

Harry blinked. "Ok, not that long," he admitted.

"So what's in the bag?" Cordelia asked, taking a peak.

"I have a few vampire friends back home, and they love these. I figured Angel might," Harry told them, pulling out a blood red lollipop and handling it to the black clad vampire.

"Um... what?" he asked, staring at the lolly in confused wonder.

"It's called a Bloodpop," Harry told him. "They're designed for vampires. You couldn't live off these for too long, but their apparently nutritional and quite nice if you like blood."

"You ever tried one?" Doyle asked, taking one from the bag and examining it.

Harry nodded, "Out of curiosity and only once."

"Then why do you have a whole bag of them?" Cordelia asked sceptically.

The bag that Harry had now put on the table held almost 30 of them. "I have one, but I know enough magic to be able to replicate the original frequently."

"Ok," she said slowly. "That still doesn't explain why you even have _one_ of them."

"Ah," Harry said in understanding. "A few months ago, myself and several others stopped a dark wizard raid on a small town. I was given a few things in thanks from some of the store owners. One guy, who owns a sweet shop, gave me a full sampler set of what he sells that didn't have the protection spells attached."

"Protection spells?" Angel asked, looking at the bloodpop curiously.

"Spells to stop people just copying the sweets and putting him out of business. He gave me the sampler but asked that I don't just hand sweets out to everyone. It was nice of him," Harry said. When it had happened Harry had profusely argued against being given anything for saving Honeydukes, Ambrosius Flume and his wife. After a long conversation Harry eventually relented when he realised that Mr. Flume and his wife weren't giving him the sweets because he was famous, but because he, just Harry, had saved them. They would have given the sugary 'reward' to anyone.

"Try it," Harry told Angel.

Tentatively he removed the packaging and gave it a small lick. He looked decidedly odd doing so, and by the barely suppressed snickering coming from his left, Cordelia thought so too.

By the way his eyes widened slightly, he approved. "They're good?" Doyle asked.

"It's... it's not bad," Angel told him.

Shrugging, Doyle tried the one he held in his hand. He cringed slightly at the taste, "I don't think I'll be trying one of them again."

"Why did you even try one in the first place?" Cordelia asked with a frown. "You are such a freak."

Doyle grinned at her, "But you love me anyway."

She rolled her eyes, "You wish."

"You can keep the bag," Harry told Angel. The vampire nodded in thanks. "And I if we can come to an arrangement I can keep you stocked up."

"An arrangement?" Angel asked, taking the Bloodpop out his mouth. "You mentioned something about that before."

Harry leaned back in his chair. "The reason I took the ring to you was more than the fact that it would only take me several minutes to do. I've been told that you were cursed and that your soul was returned to you. Is that right?"

"That's right," Angel told him.

"Magically speaking, I have three specialties, defensive, offence and soul magic." Harry told them. He saw Angel stiffen slightly. Doyle and Cordelia looked curious.

"What do you want?" Angel asked bluntly. His intimidating look was somewhat ruined by the lollipop in his hand that could have easily been cherry flavour.

"I want to cast several diagnostic spells on you and find out exactly what was done to you. Soul magic is a lost art from where I'm from, and calling a soul back from the afterlife is more than anything I can do. In return, other than a large supply of Bloodpops, I'm confident that I'll be able to anchor you're soul to this world permanently, to your body or to an item. There's also a slim chance that I could completely remove the curse on you that allows you to lose your soul again."

They looked astonished. "You could do that?" Angel asked. "You could really make sure I wouldn't lose my soul again?"

Harry nodded, "If I anchor it your body, if your body is destroyed, the soul goes as well. If I anchor it to something else, say a locket or something, if your body gets destroyed your soul will still remain in this realm until the item is destroyed. If I can get round the curse on you, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to set that up."

"So in return for this, you just want to see what magic has been used on me?" Angel asked, not agreeing to anything.

Harry nodded, "It wouldn't cause any discomfort, but it would likely take a couple of weeks. What was done to you was extremely advanced and it would likely take me a while to suss out what's what."

"You should do it Angel," Cordelia told him, her voice more compassionate than he'd heard her. "Think about it, no more Angelus." She smiled at him, "Plus, you can finally get laid."

"She's right man," Doyle told him. "I'm sure that'd mellow you out somewhat." Angel looked at him in annoyance. "Don't get me wrong; the brooding, dark hero look works for you, but it wouldn't hurt for you to smile a bit more."

"What risk does this have?" Angel asked.

"Little to none," Harry told him. "I'll see what magic was used on you before I do anything, and if something does go wrong, I can have you restrained until I can get Willow over here to do the soul spell again."

"You think you could restrain me?" Angel asked. The challenge was clear.

Harry rolled his eyes; well, Angel definitely had something in common with Buffy. They both had a superiority complex. "Yes. I've yet to prove this to Buffy, but I restrained Spike and had a conversation with him before taking his jacket. I don't imagine you'd be all that more difficult."

They lapsed into silence. "I'll think about it," Angel told him. Harry knew the vampire was telling the truth. "So, Cordelia says that you're from another dimension?"

**OoOoOoOoO**


	6. Drinks and Tutoring

**AN:** _Gasp! An update?! Yes. Yes it is… I feel as though I should mention that this __**isn't**__ the start of more updates as I'm writing this story slowly, focusing on my other one. It could take another seven months for another update. All I can say is that I have no intention of abandoning it, and if I ever do, I'll let you all know…_

_Enjoy and __**please**__ review!_

**OoOoOoOoO**

**Chapter 6 – Drinks and Tutoring**

Harry spent the rest of that day in L.A with Angel and his group of detectives, mostly in the same bar that he'd entered during the afternoon. He and Doyle got on well together and Harry allowed himself to relax slightly more as time past. He couldn't really say the same for Angel though.

It seemed likely that the vampire didn't have a sense of humour and, if what Cordelia and Doyle told him was true, had serious guilt issues; he had no reason to believe otherwise. Harry had a feeling the talk he'd given to Buffy about enjoying herself wouldn't work on Angel and he hadn't bothered trying.

Cordelia was still a bit of a mystery to him. She acted, and seemed constantly frustrated with Doyle, and at times, himself, but there was always a look in her eyes that contradicted what she was saying. He was _pretty_ sure that he had gotten on well with her, but he wouldn't bet his, or anyone else's, life on it.

He would say that Doyle was a friend though. Doyle was the most openly friendly of the three and the more he drank, the more he talked. Harry found that he wasn't the only one who had visions of the future, although Doyle's were more immediate and common than Harry's were and also caused great pain when they came.

With enough alcohol in him to have a pleasant buzz going, Harry called it a night. With the offer to call on him if any demon related incident proved too difficult to handle and a promise to be back soon to start his investigation into Angel's Soul, Harry Disapparated home.

**OoOoOoOoO**

_(October 18__th__, 2000)_

With alcohol in his system Harry slept for slightly longer than he usually did. This may have only been an extra half hour, but every little piece of sleep helped. The alcohol had also blurred his nightmares slightly, meaning he woke up less violently than usual. Although this was far more pleasant than most mornings, he had to be careful to avoid the trap that was easy to fall into. He knew that alcohol was a good method for dulling memories and keeping your mind off the truly painful things that had happened in his life, but alcohol, like the potions that allowed someone to sleep easily, led to addiction. He couldn't fall into that trap again.

It also dulled his reactions and, on a good day, that was still likely fatal for him. He needed to be on the top of his game and mind altering substances didn't help. He allowed himself to drink every so often; mostly on anniversaries of deaths or other equally painful things, but only then. The night before had been a bonding experience and so he'd allowed himself a few drinks.

Completing his morning ritual of a run, a shower and breakfast, he begin to read through the Soul Magic books that he'd picked up the day before. He read for several hours before deciding he was _way_ out of his league. It wasn't that the magic would be impossible for him to replicate, quite the opposite in fact, but the books talk about magical theories and magical laws that he had no knowledge of. The books he'd picked up were obviously part of the 'Expert' category of magic, and his knowledge was of a purely different type. He'd need to pick more books on the basics before he could understand anything.

Wanting to have an idea of what he was looking for before arriving at the Magic Shop for books, he Apparated to Giles. After knocking proved that no one was at home, Harry Apparated to the University. It was lunch time just now, so maybe Buffy or Willow would be about. If he found Buffy he could tell her about his visit to L.A. like he knew she wanted and if he found Willow he could ask what books she started on. He didn't need the practical stuff just now, only the theory, so she would hopefully be able to recommend a few books.

He was also looking for one of them because he was bored.

He walked around the campus for a short while but didn't find either Buffy or Willow. As he stopped, ready to Apparate home, he froze as his sense picked up on something.

He was being watched.

He knew it wasn't in the sense of someone looking his way, but in the way that someone was monitoring him, examining him; focusing on him and him alone.

In his life, that was never good.

He continued walking, not letting his watcher know that he was on to them. He glanced around him, pretending as though he was looking for someone. Behind his sunglasses, his right eye shone blue and he glanced towards the direction of whoever was watching him.

He saw a blonde girl sitting alone on a bench looking at him. As he turned towards her, she looked away quickly and hung her head. Not the actions of a spy or anything sinister, although he'd be careful. He walked towards her whilst watching her aura. It was similar, although quite different, to Willow's.

She was definitely a witch like Willow was, but her aura was different. Noticeably so. Willow appeared to be pure power, barely controlled and… for lack of a better word, free. This girl had a strong aura, although distinctly paler than Willows. The real difference was the control this girl had. _Her_ magic was restrained, flowing from the Earth into her at a barely noticeable rate. Harry was guessing again, and his guessed were usually quite good, but he was sure, if the control she had was any indicator, that this girl would be far more knowledgeable than Willow was about magic.

Said control wavered slightly as the girl glanced up in his direction. Though he still wasn't close to her, he saw the fear in her eyes as he neared her. She looked from left to right quickly, as if unsure of what to do. Her magic wavered again and Harry saw it 'tense.' He was guessing, but he was sure that she was preparing to use a spell on him if he proved to be a threat.

It was situations like this that made him wish he'd never heard of magic. Surely things would be simpler then.

He reached the bench the girl was sitting on. She was doing her best not to look at him and seemed to have frozen solid. He was beginning to feel quite bad about disturbing her now, but he wanted to know why she'd been examining him. He needed to know if there threats directly targeted against him here. As he looked at the girl, he knew, without any doubt, that if there was, she had nothing to do with it.

"You mind if I sit down?" Harry asked her gently.

She looked at him and the nervousness was still there. "N-n-no," she stuttered.

Harry winced slightly. Had he really made her so nervous that she was stuttering? _'Well done,'_ Harry sarcastically thought to himself as he sat.

"I'm Harry," he told her gently.

"T-Tara," she said, still unsure.

He thought about how to approach the subject of her watching him. She had definitely been using magic. "Tara, I'm not going to hurt you," Harry promised, hoping she might relax slightly. He _could_ use a calming charm on her, but that would require him to either draw his wand or touch her skin and he was quite sure that she'd have a stroke if he did either.

"I-I know t-that," Tara stammered.

"Why were you watching me?" Harry asked gently.

"I-I..." she stammered again, unsure of what to say. Harry felt thoroughly awful now for doing this to her. She was incredibly timid.

"I know you're a witch," Harry told her. "And I swear I'm not going to do anything against you."

She took a deep breath. "I-I can see a-auras," she told him. "Y-yours was really s-strange."

"You can see auras?" Harry asked in surprise. Very few people in his world could do that; only the most powerful or those with magical items. "What type?"

"I-I-I can see personality and-and I can just s-see things," Tara explained.

"What did you see with me?" Harry asked; there were a few things he could think of the top of his head.

"Y-you seem different than e-everyone else," she said. She pointed at his chest, "A-and, there s-seems to be t-two of you." She frowned slightly, "It s-seems wrong," Tara said. She ducked her head quickly, realising what she had said might not be a polite thing to say, "S-sorry." Her long straight hair fell across her face like a curtain, as though it had been cut and styled to completely cover her face should she want to hide from the world.

Harry nodded, having expected that. "That was something that happened to me a couple of years ago," Harry told her. "It was necessary at the time and I'm trying to work out how to fix it."

"W-what is it?" she asked curiously, looking up at him again, her hair moving to the side of her as if by, well, magic.

Harry winced slightly, "Something I'd really rather not talk about if you don't mind?"

She nodded several times in quick succession, as though asking about it again would be akin to an unconscionable act. "O-of course," she said.

Harry smiled at her, "Thank you."

She smiled back at him. It was a very pretty, yet very shy little smile. "C-can I ask you a q-question?" she asked.

Harry made himself comfortable on his bench. "Sure," he agreed.

"H-how did you know I was a w-witch?" she asked shyly.

"I can see aura's as well," Harry told her. Her doe-like eyes widened slightly. "Although, I can't see what you can. I can see some types of magic and, well, what a person really is."

Tara blanched; her face paling. "W-w-what a p-person r-r-really is?" she asked fearfully.

Harry frowned slightly. He thought he'd been getting her to relax slightly. What had he said? "I can see if someone is a witch or wizard, or a werewolf or a demon, even if they can physically hide it."

She paled more; something that Harry would have bet wasn't possible. "Y-y-you c-c-can s-s-s-see d-demons?" she asked.

"I can," Harry told her, having no clue what was going on in the girls mind.

"W-what d-d-did you s-see when y-you looked at m-me?" Tara asked hesitantly.

Realising that she was terrified that he had seen something in her aura that she didn't want others to know, he checked her aura again. He hadn't seen anything unusual when he'd seen her, but then, he had missed the dark patch of Buffy's aura the first time he'd met her.

Behind his sunglasses his right eye shone blue again. Tara tensed. He eyed her up and down, watching her aura closely. He shut of his mage sight. "You're a moderately powerful witch, although I've not got much to compare it against," he told her. "You seem to have a reasonable amount of control which suggests a reasonable knowledge of magic, and... that's it." He hoped that he'd calmed some of her fears.

She looked surprised by his answer. Hesitantly she asked, "Y-you d-didn't see any d-demon?" She sounded so hopeful.

"I've seen a few demons and I can say with certainty that there is no demon in your aura," Harry told her. He'd only really seen vampires and a werewolf, but her aura was too similar to Willow's to make her anything more than a witch.

She smiled, shyly again and relaxed significantly. "Y-you're sure?" she asked.

Harry smiled reassuringly. "I'd bet my right eye that I was," he told her.

She smiled again and ducked her head slightly so that her hair fell across her face. "Thank you," she said with a slightly blush.

Harry chuckled slightly. She was very cute. Deciding that it was time for an actual introduction, he held out his hand to her. "Harry Potter," he said.

She took his hand in a very light grip. "T-Tara- Maclay," she said as she shook his hand once.

At hearing her full name Harry was tempted to roll his eyes. How did this keep happening? How was it that every time he decided he wanted to meet someone, they appeared?

"You shop at the Magic Shop?" Harry asked. The owner has mentioned '_Miss Maclay_' and it seemed likely that this was her.

She nodded shyly. "I-I do. How did you k-know?" she asked. Harry noticed that her nervous stuttered had lessened slightly.

"I bought a few books from there the other day and Mr. Bogarty mentioned you were one of the few people that actually practiced magic."

"What b-books did you buy?" Tara asked curiously.

"'_Floating _Man' by Avicenna, '_Summa Magnanimitas_' by Thomas Aquinas and a book by James Hillman, but I can't remember the title," Harry told her.

She looked surprised and somewhat impressed, "S-Soul magic? I h-haven't really looked at that much."

"It's something of an… obsession of mine," Harry told her honestly. "But those books are really confusing me."

"W-what's confusing you?" she asked curiously.

Harry winced slightly, "The type of magic that I know is really different to the type talked about in the books. Your magic and mine are different, so even though I know a lot, I've got to start from the beginning again and don't really know where to start."

"I could r-recommend some books for you?" Tara offered, shyly ducking her head.

Harry smiled at her gratefully; this was exactly why he'd come out today. "I would really appreciate that."

"Um, i-if I write you a l-list of books, where would I take it?" she asked, ducking her head again.

Harry thought for a moment. Seeing this girl, so painfully shy like this, reminded him a lot of Neville Longbottom during his early years at school, before he realised that he _was_ worth something, and that he wasn't a failure like his family had told him for years. After what happened to Neville... how Harry had failed him...

Neville had told him, moments before he died, that his life had only truly began when Harry showed him that he was truly worth something. He had said that he didn't regret a thing that had happened since.

He could do something with this girl; he could try and get _her_ out of her shell like he had apparently done with Neville and the forming of the DA. He realised that his justification was a bit askew, but he owed Neville, and helping this girl would be like be like paying a small part of what he owed Neville back.

"Hmmm," Harry muttered. "Well I could stop by here at anytime, or you could drop it off at my apartment. But how about something else?"

"W-w-what do you m-mean?" Tara asked, confused.

"I was always good at the practical side of magic, but tended to skip over the theory, which I know isn't too smart. What about if you tutored me a bit? I have more than enough money and could use the help. People do that here don't they? Pay other students for tutoring?" Hermione had done that with a few people in younger years after fourth year. She'd even taught a few older students, being far more ahead of her studies than she should have been.

"I-I could do that," Tara said, her head bowed only slightly. "Y-you don't have to p-pay me though. I like studying m-magic."

"You have to pay to go to University right?" Harry asked. "And it's expensive?" Hermione had mentioned how she would love to attend Oxford if the war ended. Her parents, being dentists, had more than enough money to send her there, but she'd mentioned it a few times as one of her dreams. Harry wondered if she'd applied now that Voldemort was gone.

He blinked away the thoughts of home; it wouldn't do to dwell on them. He'd get back eventually.

"I-it's not too bad," Tara said, although Harry could clearly see the lie.

"So would you tutor me?" Harry asked. He really wanted to get the basics down and see what he could make of the soul magic in this world. He was also curious to know if he could use this world's magic. That would be quite something to bring back to his dimension.

A new form of magic.

What could convince the magic world of his impending status of Godhood more than coming back from the dead with knowledge of magic that no one in his reality had ever seen?

Or maybe that _wasn't_ such a good idea.

Tara nodded to Harry's pleasure, "I-if you want.

Harry almost frowned but was able to stop it. "Do _you _want to?" he asked. The way she'd phrased it bothered him slightly, as though she was tutoring him because he _asked_ for it, as though she couldn't say no.

On some level she realised why he asked. She took a deep breath and answered his question. "I would like to tutor you."

Harry grinned. She hadn't stuttered. Well, he'd achieved _something_ today and that was a cathartic experience. He'd been feeling pretty useless lately with very little to do. Sure, he stopped a few vampires, but what was he to do with himself with a Dark Lord pursuing him?

Tara smiled slightly at his reaction. "So where is y-your apartment?" she asked. Harry gave her the directions and the apartment number. "W-would it be alright if I stopped by t-tomorrow night?" she asked.

Harry nodded, "As long as you aren't roaming the streets after dark, definitely."

She looked at her watch, "I h-have to go to class now. I-I'll see you later Harry."

Harry stood with her, "Stop by whenever you want." With a look from side to side to see if anyone was watching him, he winked at Harry and Disapparated from the spot, leaving a shocked, but pleased, blonde staring at where he'd just been.

**OoOoOoOoO**

_(October 18__th__-19__th__, 2000)_

Having left the UCLA campus Harry had returned home and did his best to read through his soul magic books again. There were _some_ things he understood and he made note of those that he didn't. Hopefully Tara would know a thing or two about what confused him.

He _had_ considered talking to Giles or Willow about this worlds magic before deciding he'd see what he made of Tara. Giles's had a lot of books, sure, and likely knew a lot, but he didn't know if Giles had any personal experience with magic, or if was just book knowledge. Even if the older man had knowledge, he was, hopefully, still looking for a way to get Harry home. He didn't want to give the man more to do, and Harry had the feeling that if he'd asked Giles for help, the man would be too polite to refuse.

Willow, as she pointed out, was only just beginning to explore the boundaries created by magic. She was the curious child with more power than sense, and, whilst she could likely help him with what he was looking for, there was still a chance that things could go quite wrong. It was probably best for her to just work at her own pace and not have to think about the darker sides of magic. She also spoke very quickly in a manner that was not easy to decipher.

This world's magic seemed slightly unnatural and unstable. He didn't know how much damage it could cause. For now, he would stick to someone who was a little quiet, and a little shy; someone who appeared to have a good grasp on the ins and outs of this world's magic.

He read until early morning before trying to get a few hours sleep. After waking up after barely three hours sleep, soaked in cold sweat and screaming, he realised that his sleeping patterns were getting worse as days went by. _Again_ he'd seen the same vision with the falling girl and he still had no idea what it meant. There was also a building sense of agitation buzzing around him.

What annoyed him most was that he had _no _idea what it was. He wasn't especially anxious to get home, he didn't have anything to do here, but he had the constant feeling that he _needed _to do something. It might have been due to the approach of Halloween, a day that had never gone particularly well for him, or it might have been from the dark magic that had seeped into every part of this town.

He tried to keep himself occupied the following day, running until he collapsed and using as much magic as he was willing to spare to modify his apartment.

Other than the large sense of space he had, the rest of what he had done to the apartment was completely pointless. It now had a second floor that led up to the flats bedrooms, just like Gryffindor tower. The place was now a near-real replica. The only things missing were the spectacular views from the windows which he wasn't sure how to replicate, and actual Gryffindors, other than himself.

He also put off going to see Buffy like he said he would after running from L.A. With his frustrated mood he'd rather get over it in solitude like he usually would. Or try, at least; he had very stubborn friends. Although Buffy was a Chosen One and therefore had a good chance of knowing what Harry was feeling – despite himself not knowing – he had never been one to share his feelings so openly.

Eventually he gave up trying to distract himself and settled on just wasting time and changing the colours of random things in his house, wondering if Tara would turn up.

He finished his evening meal shortly after 6pm and as he was tidying up, there was a knock at his door. His right eye flashed blue and he knew who was there. He closed his eyes and mentally controlled the blood wards he had cast to temporarily key his visitor in. He walked to do the door, took a calming breath and opened it with a smile. "Tara, come in," Harry said moving back from the door. The rule that Giles had told him about not inviting anyone in verbally didn't really apply to him here. Any vampire that crossed _his _threshold invited or not, wouldn't even be around long enough to regret it.

Tara walked in, a small smile on her face that only partially reached her eyes. She had dressed somewhat formally, and Harry was pleased to see that. That meant she planned on doing this properly. She had three books in her hands. "H-hi Harry," she said to him before stopping dead in her tracks and staring at the room in the same awe that Willow, the only other person to have this place, had.

"W-w-what?" she asked as she blinked several times in quick succession. Harry smiled slightly; he was always enjoyed getting those looks. Having always hated trying to live up to his own reputation, spectacular acts of magic that people looked at in awe made him feel as though he'd done something right.

"I've been a bit bored," Harry told her. "And it's good a way to use up some of my magic." He pointed to the couch, "Have a seat. Would you like a drink or anything?"

"Um, n-no," Tara said, still looking around the room not quite believing what she was seeing. "W-what did you d-do here?" she asked.

Harry took a seat opposite her. "Several space expansion charms, a lot of inanimate to inanimate transfiguration, some conjuration and a few other charms."

"I-I-I-f you c-can d-do this, w-w-why do you n-need m-me here?" Tara asked. Her voice was fearful and she looked around quickly.

Harry blinked in confusion at the change in her voice. The awe was gone, replaced with fear. Quickly, he realised what thoughts must be running through her head. "This is _my_ magic. The type you can use, the theory and history is completely different to anything I've ever heard. I don't even _know_ what your type of magic can do."

Tara took a few deep breaths, getting herself under control. "Y-you're magic?" she asked. She was still wary, but there was a note of curiosity as well.

Harry drew his secondary wand from the holster on the back of his right leg and passed it to her. "To use my magic I have to use a wand for most of it. I can do very little without it. Most of it needs proper wand movements, incantations and visualisation." Harry shrugged, "I don't know how similar this is to what you can do, but I want to learn."

Tara examined the wand in her hand, holding it delicately. "Y-you u-use a m-magic wand?" she asked. There was the smallest upturn of her lips that Harry was sure was the beginning of a smile.

"Yeah. My magic is in my blood, not drawn from my surroundings. That, as far as I can tell, is the major difference," Harry told her. A thought raced through his mind. "Give the wand a wave," Harry said. "See if it works." He hadn't thought of trying this before with Willow and he was curious to see what would happen.

Tara looked worried. "I-Is that s-safe?" she asked.

Harry nodded, "Yes, but don't aim it at me."

Tense, and holding the wand by its grip, Tara gave the wand a small wave. Nothing happened. She frowned ever so slightly and gave it another wave. Again, there was no reaction. "It d-didn't do a-anything," Tara commented, passing the wand back to Harry who holstered it once again.

Harry leaned back in his chair. "I didn't think it would. Did you feel _anything_ when you tried?"

Tara frowned slightly again, "I-it felt... w-wrong. L-like... d-darkness."

Harry nodded slightly, "The man who had that wand before me wasn't especially nice. It's probably residual dark magic that the wand has been used to cast."

"W-why do you h-have the wand?" Tara asked, curiously.

Harry shrugged. "It works well for me and it's powerful. That's a rare combination." Wanting to get on with why Tara was here in the first place, Harry changed the topic of conversation. He glanced down at the three books Tara had brought over. "So, what are the books?" Harry asked.

"T-they're a good p-place to start at. I-I can lend them t-to you for a w-while," Tara told him, passing over the books and sitting down opposite him.

"Thank you," Harry said, taking the books. "But I have a better idea." He drew the Elder wand and tapped each of the books twice. When he picked up the books and moved them aside, identical copies remained. "Now we both have a set."

"T-that's pretty cool," Tara said with a smile.

Harry nodded. "So," he said to her. "Where do we start?"

**OoOoOoOoO**

His tutoring with Tara had gone quite well. He hadn't practiced any magic, but Tara had shown him several meditative techniques that were used in order to try and access the magic of the earth. Having practiced something similar when he began to _truly_ learn Occlumency, this came quite easily to him. They'd spent twenty minutes on that until Tara was sure he'd gotten it right. After they talked about magical theory until Tara said she had to leave. Harry now had a minor understanding of this magic of this world, and a lot of reading to do.

Tara had stayed for almost two hours and they'd spent a bit of that just talking. Harry had quickly gotten the feeling that Tara was lonely, and from what he had worked out, had very few, if any, friends here in California. He couldn't help but be once again reminded of Neville when he first began Hogwarts, before he began to believe in himself and his abilities.

He was noticing some very strange parallels regarding the people in this world.

From what Tara had told him, and the questions he asked, he had a fairly good idea of _why_ she was like she was.

_(Flashback)_

"_I was curious about something," Harry asked Tara. The books were still open and he was still taking notes, but something had been bugging him since Tara arrived._

"_O-oh?" she asked. The stutter was getting a bit better, vanishing mostly when she was talking about witchcraft and the religion of Wicca. Those were the only things she was really comfortable with as far as he could see._

"_You asked me earlier if I could see any demon in you. Why would you think I had?" Harry asked. Tara ducked her head, her hair covering her face like a veil. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Harry quickly added, seeing her unease._

"_N-no, it's o-okay," Tara said, her head still hanging a bit. She took a breath, "M-my f-f-father told m-me that I was part d-demon and that i-it would show on m-my next b-birthday."_

_Harry leaned forward slightly, "He told you that you were part demon?" That was a bit worse than being called 'freak', Harry thought._

_Tara nodded, her hair falling over her face again. She brushed it aside, "H-he told me that was w-where my m-magic came from."_

"_From you 'demon' side?" Harry asked, making that his disbelieve was properly conveyed to the damaged young woman opposite him._

_Tara nodded again. "He s-said it was s-something that was passed on my m-m-mothers side of the f-family."_

_Harry just nodded, thinking about her situation. He'd noticed that she struggled when saying 'father' and 'mother'. 'Mother' was said with a deep sadness, whereas 'father' was said with a tone that said Tara didn't see quite eye to eye with the man. If that was the case, Harry definitely sided with her._

"_Your mother's side of the family studied magic for a while?" Harry asked, piecing together his suspicions._

_Tara nodded, "My m-mom was a witch and so was h-hers."_

_Harry grimaced slightly. He wanted to voice what he thought, but didn't want to speak badly about her father. That sort of thing wasn't done unless you were speaking to the child of a Death Eater._

"_W-what do you want to s-say?" Tara asked._

_Hesitant, Harry answered, "If I were to guess, I'd say that story you've been told was just that; a story. I've heard of things like this with families with young children who noticed magic and strange things, and called the kid a freak or abnormal. It was usually out of anger, fear, or a need to control and subdue what __**they**__ saw as a sin. From what I could guess, I'd say your dad didn't like magic much."_

_Whilst talking about the Dursley's was something he didn't like to think about, and definitely didn't like to talk about, he could see a few similarities with Tara's childhood and his own. The weird parallels in this world just kept piling up._

_Tara shook her head, "H-he didn't. He didn't s-say much about it, b-but I could sense it."_

"_Your aura reading?" Harry asked._

_Tara nodded again, "I-I called him a-after you s-spoke to me e-earlier."_

"_And?" Harry asked. This might explain why she was on edge when she turned up here. Well, before she saw the impossibly large apartment he lived in._

"_I-I asked him about i-it and he denied it, but, but, I-I could hear fear in h-his voice," Tara told him._

"_Fear of discovery?" Harry asked._

_Tara nodded again, "H-he kept telling me that i-it was true." She smiled slightly. Harry was surprised to see the mischievous glint in her eyes, "I, I hung up on him."_

_Harry smiled back. Whilst it wasn't much, it was a step forward. Neville had told him several times that he was a good influence on people; perhaps that was true. "Well done," Harry told her. A thought crossed his mind that confused him slightly. "Why trust me?" he asked. "You met me today, and already you believe something I told you over something someone you've known for twenty years."_

_Tara smiled slightly, "I-I can tell when p-people are lying. Y-you're difficult to r-read, but I still can."_

_If that was true, Harry was definitely impressed. "My aura?" he asked._

_Tara nodded, "I-it's different, but s-similar enough."_

"_Well," Harry said. "I'm glad you trust me. Now, where were we?"_

_(End Flashback)_

Harry was fairly sure that after the tutoring session ended, he had a new friend. After making sure that Tara got home safely, he continued reading through the books Tara had brought until he became too restless. As it got dark he ventured outside, looking for demons again. He'd been in this reality for a while now and he hadn't seen a single thing he'd call a demon yet. It was almost enough to make him believe that there _weren't_ any here. None the less, he was determined to keep wandering the town until he found something.

As Willow had told him that graveyards were the best place to find demons, he picked one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries and began trying to find something, _anything,_ to fight.

It wasn't long into his search when he came across Buffy again. Her back was to him and she hadn't turned around. Feet silenced he slowly approached her, wand out and ready. He wasn't _quite_ sure why he was determined to keep testing her, but none the less, there was an urge. Keeping his movements slow and quiet, he slowly prowled behind his prey.

He was ten feet behind her when she quickly turned, stake at the ready. Her expression went from attack mode to fake annoyance. The slight smile was enough of a giveaway. Harry wasn't sure if the amusement came from discovering him or the fact that when she turned around he'd frozen, and remained in mid step, with one foot hovering off the ground. "You have a death wish," she said, crossing her arms.

Harry opened his mouth to argue his innocence, but stopped. He grinned at the blonde, "I was going to say that I don't, but none of my friends would agree with me." He placed his foot on the ground and looked around the quiet cemetery. "So what brings you to _this_ charming place?"

"Patrolling," Buffy answered, uncrossing her arms and rotating her stake around in her hand. "Keeping the people of Sunnydale safe from the undead. You?"

Harry looked around again, "Looking for a fight; more specifically for a demon-looking demon."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "That death wish thing?" she asked.

Harry snorted, "So I've been told. So, seen anything interesting about tonight?"

"Nope, it's usually pretty quiet after the summer though. That nest of vamps that you poofed the other night has been the most exciting thing," Buffy told him.

Harry quirked an eyebrow, "Evil takes a summer holiday?" Harry asked with a slight hint of disbelief.

"Halloween too," Buffy added. Harry growled silently at the name of the holiday. Buffy looked at him questioningly but remained silent.

"Hmmm," Harry murmured.

"So," Buffy said, with a bit of fake cheerfulness. "You never said how your trip to L.A. was."

"It went well," Harry said, as they stared walking through the cemetery. "Oh, Cordelia says 'hi'"

"You met Cordelia?" Buffy asked in bewilderment, coming to a stop.

Harry tilted his head, "What do you know about what Angel is doing?"

She ducked her head slightly, at kicked at the ground at her feet. "Giles says he's playing detective, saving innocents."

Harry nodded, "Cordelia is working with him to kill the time until she becomes an actress." Buffy snorted. "What?" Harry asked.

"Never mind," Buffy said with a smile. "So, she says hi?"

"Something like that," Harry said with a roll of her eyes at the thought of the odd brunette that he hadn't been able to get a proper read on.

"Left an impression, did she?" Buffy asked with an amused smirk.

Harry laughed, "If she can find someone to sort my hair out, she'll be my new best friend."

Buffy tilted her head, "I don't know. I like it."

"Yeah?" Harry asked, finding himself more pleased with that than he'd imagined he would.

"It's messy, but it looks like it's meant to be like that, not like you just woke up. It suits you." Harry looked at her doubtfully. "Trust me. Girls know a lot more about this than guys do."

"Cordelia didn't like it," Harry said to her.

Buffy snorted distastefully, "And the world can't have anything Cordelia doesn't like."

Harry laughed again, "Fond of her, aren't you?"

Buffy frowned in thought, "She's not _bad_," she said, making sure to put extra emphasis on 'bad', implying Cordelia wasn't all that good either. "We just didn't get along all that well."

Harry nodded, "Fair enough." They lapsed into a moment of silence.

"So, how's Angel?" she eventually, but hesitantly, asked.

"Well, I've been told he's always been that... that..." Harry said, not sure on what word to use.

"Broody?" Buffy asked.

"Er, I'm not sure that's a word, but yeah, I guess that word works as well as any. He was interested to know how you were and what you... get down!" Harry shouted. They'd been distracted and not noticed a single vampire sneaking up on them. Harry flicked his wand to where Buffy was standing. Reacting on instinct from such an order Buffy dropped to the ground. Seeing her move, Harry cast a powerful slashing spell at head height, decapitating the vampire. It burst in to dust before it could react.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, moving over to Buffy to help her to her feet.

Buffy grabbed his extended arm and pulled herself up. She frowned, "My top is dirty," she told him.

Harry laughed at her sense of priorities. "I can fix that," Harry told her. This conversation had reached another morbid point and he thought about what he could do to try and fix that. Idea in mind, he frowned slightly, pretending to be thinking hard. "I think."

Buffy brushed herself off, "You _think _you can?" she asked sceptically.

Harry nodded, a serious expression on his face. "I was never great at the household charms." He tapped his wand to the side of his face, pretending to think up a spell. It was a habit that had almost given Remus several heart attacks over the years. "You'll forgive me if I vanish your clothes or, you know, set you on fire, right?"

Buffy's eyes widened slightly, before quickly cottoning on to the fact that he wasn't serious. "Go ahead," she challenged back, crossing her arms.

"I'm allowed to vanish your clothes?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile. It was a _really_ tempting thought.

"You might not like what happened if you did," Buffy challenged again.

Harry's grin widened, "I think I would."

Her eyes narrowed, but she remained where she was. Deciding not to call her bluff tonight, Harry flicked his wand, cleaning and repairing her clothes. With a critical eye, Buffy examined herself to make sure Harry hadn't done anything that she would have to make him regret. She was pleasantly surprised to find her clothes not only clean, but looking brand new. "My top looks brand new," Buffy told him, her surprise obvious.

Harry shrugged, "Glad you like it." They began walking again. Harry pulled out a cigarette and lit it. From the slight grimace on Buffy's face, he didn't need to offer her one. He took a drag on it and sighed as he relaxed.

"I don't get you," Buffy commented after a moment. After the near miss she was visibly alert, surveying everything around her.

"What's not to get?" Harry asked curiously. Most people didn't 'get' him, but he attributed that to his fame and reputation always preceding him.

"You're obviously powerful, yet you don't seem to care, you do the quiet brooding thing, yet every time I see you, you keep trying to liven up the conversation. Also don't seem bothered about getting home. You're very confusing," Buffy told him.

Harry shrugged. "You seem powerful as well, and I've not seen you brag about it, a lot of things in my life have been dark and depressing, so avoiding that when I can helps and, well, everything back home is very stressful. I'll get back home when I get back home," he told her, answering her questions. "I'm in no hurry."

"You don't miss your family?" Buffy asked.

Harry considered avoiding the question completely, giving Buffy some vague answer so she wouldn't ask any more questions. His family was a sore subject for him, but it wasn't for the reason most people thought. The reason was much darker and only two people knew the exact details. He decided to go for honesty. "They're dead," he told her.

Buffy blanched, completely thrown by the answer. "Oh," was all she said for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that." She paused for a second. "Was the war you were fighting?" she asked.

"Technically," Harry told her. "They died before I was two, during the first war. They were some of the last casualties."

"There were _two _wars?" Buffy asked softly.

Harry nodded, "The first one ended the night my parents died. You remember that prophecy I was telling you about?" Buffy nodded and Harry continued, running a hand across his lightning bolt scar. "That was the night he 'marked' me as his equal." He lifted up his fringe to show the scar on his forehead. "He tried killing me but the curse backfired, stopping him for thirteen years."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear about your parents. I can't imagine losing my mom," Buffy told him.

"What happened to your dad?" Harry asked cautiously, hoping not to bring up any bad memories for her.

"He and my mom split up before I moved to Sunnydale a few years ago. I see him every now and then, but I don't talk to him too often. He's a busy guy," Buffy explained, trying to sound as though it didn't bother her.

"So you get on well with your mum?" Harry asked, pulling her thoughts from her father.

"Most of the time," Buffy smiled. "We have our fights, but we love each other."

Harry smiled back. "How did she take the whole 'Chosen One' thing?" he asked.

An unpleasant look passed across Buffy's face so fast Harry almost thought that he'd imagined it. As fast as it appeared, it vanished and was replaced by a smile. "She freaked at first you know?" Buffy told him. "Asked if I'd tried _not_ being a Slayer, but she's cool with it now."

There was... _something_ there in her voice that... he couldn't quite grasp it. With it being none of his business, he dropped it.

"So who did you grow up with?" she asked.

Harry wished he _had _questioned her further. Maybe then she'd have dropped into an uncomfortable silence, not him.

Harry rubbed his chest, feeling the weight that rested there. "Let's talk about something else, alright?" he asked. The less he thought of the Dursleys the better.

The two lapsed into silence again. "Did Angel wear the ring?" Buffy asked.

Harry nodded, glad to talk about something else. "He was wearing it when I left. Seemed glad of it, but wasn't really sure what to do with himself." He smiled slightly, "Doyle and Cordelia spent a good portion of the night giving him suggestions that got more bizarre per the drink. I think Doyle's last suggestion was that Angel should try and become the first vampire to reach space."

Buffy laughed slightly, no doubt picturing such a thing. When Doyle had suggested it, Cordelia, despite being well on her way to drunk, verbally disapproved it. "Who's Doyle?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, right. He's the other guy working for Angel. He gets visions of the future and lets Angel know who to save. Nice guy."

"Oh. So what..." Buffy trailed off as two vampires casually walked up to them. One was wearing a dirty suit and was clearly new at this. Their demon faces were visible.

"Look at the happy couple going for a walk. They'll be perfect for my first meal," the new vampire said, a taunting smirk on his lips.

Harry adjusted his grip on his wand, ready to start throwing curses. Buffy smiled and rocked back and forth on her feet, ready for a fight. She looked at the other vampire and asked mockingly, "Did you tell him to say that?" She looked to the new vampire, "You couldn't come up with something on your own without 80's-reject-boy over there holding your hand?"

Harry smiled slightly and the shocked looks on the vampires faces. The new vampire looked over to its companion, "Shouldn't they be scared?" he asked.

The other vampire growled at its companion, not appreciating the question. He turned to Buffy, "You are foolish not to fear us, mortal," he growled.

"Oh, I am scared," Buffy told him mockingly. The vampire smiled victoriously, not catching the sarcasm. Buffy tilted her head, "You might make my clothes dirty and I just had them cleaned." The vampires smirked faded, replaced by anger.

"I could fix you up again," Harry suggested, playing into whatever act Buffy was in to and just playing it relaxed.

"Really?" she asked, turning to face him, appearing to take her eyes off the vampires.

Harry nodded, "Sure." He wondered why Buffy was acting like a ditz, but he'd heard her taunting vampires a couple weeks ago, and he guessed that it was a common thing.

The lead vampire rushed towards Buffy. She quickly winked at Harry before ducking under the vampires punch. Still low, she swung round, attempting to kick the vampire's feet from underneath him. It jumped at the last minute. The vampire punched Buffy again but she blocked it, countering with several thundering punches of her own. The new vampire, seeing its sire was in trouble, sprung at Buffy. Having understood Buffy's wink before the fight started, Harry stayed out of the fight.

Buffy's stake appeared in her hand and before the new vampire knew what was happening, it had turned to dust, a stake in its chest. For her win Buffy got hit in the face, stumbling back a few feet. Recognition crossed the vampires face as she didn't go down. "Slayer," he growled, eyes narrowed.

Buffy twirled her stake in her hand, a grin on her face. She was clearly enjoying herself. "I wondered when you'd recognise me," she said, quite pleased that the vampire knew who she was.

Indecision crossed the vampires face. Taking what it thought would be the best option, the vampire turned and fled. Before Harry could aim his wand, Buffy threw the stake through the air like a knife, impaling it in the vampires back. Mid step, it burst into dust and vanished in the wind.

"Cool trick," Harry commented as Buffy went to retrieve her stake.

"Not as flashy as a fire whip, but I manage," Buffy told him with a smile.

"Easier though," Harry said. "I imagine."

She shrugged, "It comes naturally to me. All part of the 'Slayer' package."

"And the taunting?"

Buffy smiled, "That's just fun."

Harry nodded in understanding. They slipped into silence again, the only noise in the graveyard the sound of their footsteps. "Are there _any_ other demons here?" Harry finally asked.

"Too many. Why?"

"Because I've still not seen one and I've been out here for two weeks looking. I didn't think it would be that hard," Harry told her.

"You've been out here _every_ night?" Buffy asked, oddly.

Harry nodded, "For me, this is like going to Rome and not seeing the Coliseum. You have an open Hellmouth here, and I've not seen any demons beyond vampires." He looked at her, half serious, "It's getting ridiculous."

"You really want to see a demon _that_ badly?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah. Any hints?"

Buffy pondered the question, "Well, we could go to Willy's Bar if you want."

"A bar?" Harry asked sceptically.

"A demon bar," Buffy corrected. "I usually go see Willy when we need information, but he always has... interesting regulars."

"You don't mind skipping out on your... patrol?" Harry asked.

Buffy shrugged, "Two vamps is pretty much par for a night and we've had three, so we're good."

"Alright then, it's a date," Harry said with a grin.

Buffy rolled her eyes but still smiled, "I've been to worse places on dates."

Harry offered Buffy his arm, playing the role of a gentleman. "My Lady?" he asked, grinning roguishly.

Buffy slugged him the arm using the strength he'd expect from a girl her size. She tried her hardest to frown at him. "I'm Buffy, not a Lady," she told him imperiously.

"Oh?" Harry asked, dropping the offer of his arm.

"Bad experience with a Noble women and I have no desire to tempt fate again, no matter _how_ pretty I was in my dress."

"Eh?" Harry asked, thoroughly confused.

Buffy rolled her eyes, "A Chaos Mage called Ethan Rayne cursed the town so that we turned in what we were dressed as. I was dressed as an 18th Century noble woman."

Harry snickered. "And how did that turn out?" He'd met women who _thought_ the world was still at the same point it was in during 1700's and acted that way; those that fainted at the sight of anything unseemly and generally made situations more difficult than they should be. He clearly remembered almost having his arm bitten off during an Inferi attack that had taken place in India because a woman in a large frilly dress had just stood still screaming as a horde of the undead swarmed her.

He'd saved her, but barely, loudly cursing his 'hero complex' as he did.

Her face scrunched up in a cute way as she answered, obviously not enjoying recalling the night. "I kept screaming at cars, calling them demons..." She trailed off, looking quite embarrassed.

"And generally making things more difficult for everyone around you?" Harry continued with an easy grin. Though she was normally beautiful, she seemed far more so when embarrassed, just like when she was angry. He subconsciously licked his lips at the thought.

Her embarrassment quickly cleared, replaced by frustration. Harry laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Not your fault though, right?" he told her. He could read the guilty look in her eyes all too easily.

"I guess," she told him, shrugging it off as though it meant nothing. "You have to tell me a story now," she told him with utter certainty.

Harry raised both his eyebrows in surprise. "Really?" he asked.

"Sure," Buffy told him. "I told you one of my stories so you have to do the same."

Harry quirked a smile. "You showed me yours, so I have to show you mine?" he asked, his smile turning into a grin. Buffy blushed at his words and broke eye contact. Harry laughed out loud, enjoying her flustered look. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

He watched her think of what question to ask. She frowned thoughtfully before looking back at him. "Willow said you had an interest in soul magic. Why?"

That hadn't been a question he'd imagined she'd ask, but given her ex-boyfriend had soul 'issues', it shouldn't have been surprised. "I mentioned that when the Dark Lord tried to kill me he disappeared from thirteen years, right?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, but you didn't say how," Buffy told him.

"When he was sixteen he split his soul into something called a Horcrux," Harry explained. "That meant that if his body was destroyed, the Horcrux would anchor his soul to the mortal realm and he wouldn't be able to die." He paused, considering his words. This topic held more than a few traps for him. "When his curse rebounded his body was destroyed and his soul fled England. When I was twelve I destroyed the Horcrux that he made at sixteen."

"Shouldn't he have disappeared then?" Buffy asked, confused.

"He would have," Harry told her, "had he not seven more of them."

Buffy's eyes widened slightly and Harry chuckled. "That's what I thought. Due to some circumstances that happened just after I turned 16 I learned of these and the next few years were spent travelling the world, trying to find his soul cages."

"That's why you said you've been to places where the other Hellmouths are," Buffy realised. "That's where he hid them."

Harry nodded. "He hid one in the Vatican City and they refused us entrance to try and find it." He rolled his eyes, "They told us that no one could breach their security and that we were obviously mistaken." Harry grinned. "It took four of us three days to get in and that's why I'm no longer welcome in that part of the world."

"You found the soul-thing?" Buffy asked.

Harry nodded. "I did. We damage priceless artefacts and destroyed more than a bit of the cities interior, but we found it." Harry scoffed. "And that was one of the easy ones. Egypt was something else." He looked at Buffy and asked inquiringly. "Have you ever fought mummies before?" He paused. "Or a Sphinx?"

"I met an Inca Mummy once," Buffy told him with a meek smile.

Harry grinned at her. "Pray that's all you fight. Fire and magic resistant mummies aren't fun, but you don't ever want to fight a Sphinx." He paused again, shuddering slightly at the memory. "Or a pack of them."

"Bad day?" Buffy asked.

Harry pulled down on his t-shirt and tilted his neck upwards. Due to the body armour he was wearing, only the beginning of the scar could be seen. "The pack-mother got a bit closer than I'd have liked and almost ripped me in half." He nodded to himself. "I've had better days."

**OoOoOoOoO**

It took fifteen minutes for Buffy and Harry to reach 'Willy's Place'. The place didn't look anything special. An old neon sign hung over the door with the bar's name and the door was a bit scratched. The demon bar looked just like any other bar cheap in existence.

"And normal people just don't come in here?" Harry asked oddly, standing outside with Buffy. An aura check of the building showed that it held some minor, very odd wards over it, but that was the only sign that something was amiss. Anyone could have walked into this place without even realising what was inside.

"Yup," Buffy said as though it was obvious. "People in Sunnydale tend to just subconsciously avoid the Hellmouthy places. They call it 'the bad side of town'. That just means more demons."

"Ah," Harry muttered. He glanced to the sky. "Maybe it's the ward that's doing that," he muttered, more to himself than Buffy.

"Ward? You mean a hospital ward?" Buffy asked in confusion.

Harry shook his head and pointed to the sky. "No. A ward is typically a constant protection spell. There's a huge one over this town that stops on the outskirts." He shrugged, "I have no idea what it does, but it might divert the attention away from the supernatural."

"Huh," Buffy muttered in surprise. She shrugged to herself, "Oh well. We can tell Giles tomorrow. Now, come on. I'm tired and I want to go to bed." With that she pushed open the single door the bar and strode inside. The door creaked noticeably and Harry followed behind her.

He took a few steps in and a small grin broke out on his face. The place was quite busy. His eye shone as he scanned the room. A thin looking muggle with short slicked back hair and a weasel-like face stood behind the bar serving what appeared to be a shot of blood to a vampire. Several other demons or varying species sat in separate stalls around the small room, drinks in their hands, talon's and/or claws.

They were all staring at Buffy, looking quite worried, none more so than the man behind the bar. He was already beginning to sweat. Harry was impressed; Buffy clearly had a reputation around here.

"Hi Willy!" Buffy greeted the bar man. From the look on the man's face, Harry wasn't the only one to recognise her greeting was a bit too enthusiastic. She and Harry walked over the man behind the bar. Harry noticed several vampires and a couple of demons leave quickly.

"Slayer," Willy greeted back with a forced, nervous smile. He looked at Harry, "And, uh, Slayer's friend. Hey, uh, what can I do for you?" He paused. "I've been keeping my nose clean you know," he added in a hurry.

"Oh nothing," Buffy told the man, still playing the overenthusiastic role she'd chosen for herself. "I was just showing my friend around," Buffy told Willy. She turned to Harry, "This is the place you go when you want information." She was still smiling brightly, but Harry could see genuine humour in her eyes now.

"Come on Slayer," Willy practically pleaded. "You'll run out all my customers. A guys got make a living, you know."

"Oh, relax Willy," Buffy rebuked. "I said I was just showing my friend around."

"Hey," Harry said, taking a seat on a bar stool. He made sure he was sitting so that everyone in the bar was in his sights. He couldn't see the door behind him, but he would hear the door if it opened.

"Hey, kid," Willy greeted, still quite nervous. "Ain't seen you around here before."

"I'm new," Harry told the man, ignoring the 'kid' comment. It wasn't _'boy'_ so he had no _real_ problem with it. He glanced at the drinks behind the bar. Most were clearly tailored to the preference of the local demons, but he noticed a few drinks that he recognised, if only in vague terms. The brand names were a bit different than he'd usually drink. With his comment about 'Rome' earlier to Buffy, he decided that as he was in a bar, he might as well get a drink. "A glass of whisky, please," Harry ordered. He turned to Buffy, "Anything?" he asked.

"Ewww," Buffy muttered, sparing a glance at the drinks around the bar. Harry could somewhat understand her reaction. He counted five that were clearly blood, each marked with either an animal name or a blood type. That was impressive in a morbid sort of way.

"You got ID, kid?" Willy asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Willy; he knew he looked over 18. He quickly cottoned on to the fact that he had to be 21 to drink in America. He narrowed his eyes at the man slightly and thought about hurting him. Willy quickly got the message and moved away to make the drink.

"You sure you don't want anything?" Harry asked.

She took a seat beside him. "If I say no again will you give me your freaky glare?" Buffy asked with a smile.

Harry grinned, looking amused and dangerous. It gave a look that people in the Hogwarts Dimension quickly associated with a wild cat hunting prey. His friends learned quickly to be careful around him during those times. "I wouldn't," Harry told her.

"So how did you do that?" she asked. "Usually, I have to threaten Willy with violence before he tells me anything." She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "Was it like your shiny people thing?" she asked quietly.

Harry laughed, accepting the drink from Willy and handing over some money. "My aura reading? No. It's all in the eyes," Harry explained. "If you glare at someone while thinking about all the horrible painful things you can do to them, they tend to get the message faster and easier than if you threaten to curse them." He nodded sagely, "It cause's less commotion than if you start a fight."

A muttered wandless detection charm on his drink showed that the only dangerous thing in it was the alcohol. The glass briefly shone white to indicate this. "Cheers," Harry said to Buffy, downing the drink. It wasn't that bad and it didn't burn his throat like firewhisky did. He placed it back on the bar and gave Willy a nod, indicating he wanted a refill. Buffy was looking at him oddly.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Your drink _glowed_ and you drank it? Uh uh, that's _seriously_ of the bad," Buffy told him. She sounded as though she was chastising him.

Harry rolled his eyes, accepting his refilled glass. "I checked it for poison. The glow meant that it only had alcohol in it." It shone white again and he drank a small mouthful of the amber liquid.

"You check _all _your drinks for poison, or just from... dodgy places?" Buffy asked.

"Everything I don't prepare myself," Harry told her. "A lot of people want me dead at home and when I was 17 it became apparent that very few people had a chance of killing me face-to-face. That led to me being poisoned a couple of times. I'm always careful now."

"Um, wow. Definitely not of the good," Buffy said, quite surprised.

Harry shrugged, "It's normal to me; it'd be weird any other way." He glanced around the room again looking at the demons. "You know what any of these are called?" Harry asked Buffy.

"Um, I think the spikey one in the corner is a Bracket demon or something. Don't recognise the rest," Buffy told him with a frown he was quickly regarding as cute. She pointed out a demon with green skin, red eyes and blue spine all along its face. The demon, perhaps called 'a Bracket', was deliberately not making eye contact their way. Now that he thought about it, all the demons still seemed really tense.

"You don't sound sure," Harry told her taking another drink from his glass.

Buffy shrugged, not at all concerned, "Giles' says I don't remember demon names well, so who am I to argue with him?"

"Fair enough," Harry conceded. "So, as someone who slays demons, why is this place still open? Why haven't you shut it down?" In his peripheral vision he saw that the bar now had the focus of every demon in it.

Either Buffy didn't notice them, or just didn't care; he suspected the latter. "A lot of demons are friendly. Giles says that most of them don't want to end the world; just live their lives and have families like the rest of the planet."

Harry nodded, thinking that made sense. Everyone, minus Willy, relaxed slightly. "Oh, and Willy lets us know things when we... ask," she added, her smile saying all she needed to about how Willy was 'asked' things. Harry had no problem with that. Sometimes force was needed to accomplish things.

"You know," Buffy pondered. "I haven't spoken to Willy in a while to see if anything's going on in Sunnyhell. Hey, Willy!" she called to the owner, who was standing as far away from her as he could while still being behind the bar.

Willy looked panicked again. "Uh, yeah Slayer?" he asked. He glanced around uncomfortably.

"You don't know of anything happening around town just now do you?" she asked curiously, her head tilted slightly to the side, a smile on her face.

Willy's nerves spiked. Harry could _smell _the fear now. "I don't know nothin' about nothin'," he told her, willing her to believe him. He was clearly lying.

Harry cleared his throat slightly, catching Buffy's attention. She glanced at him confused. Harry looked her in the eyes, glanced in Willy's direction, looked back to her and the narrowed his eyes slightly. Her own opened wide in understanding and Harry turned back to the bar owner.

Buffy and Willy looked each other eye to eye. Buffy's eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Harry saw the man gulp and take a partial step back. Buffy's eyes narrowed further and then an almost infinitesimal smile slowly broke out on her face. It was dangerous, predatory and really quite frightening. Harry tilted his head slightly as he watched her successfully emulate what he'd done only a few minutes before. It was somewhat worrying how attractive that made her. He'd known, knew, another girl who could glare as well as that and she was, well, she was another story.

Willy whimpered slightly. He glanced around him, trying to make sure no was watching him, "Alright alright!" he pleaded. "I'll talk."

Buffy's glare lessened and she smiled, quite proud at her new skill. Out of sight from Willy, Harry grinned at her and nodded approvingly. "So what's the what, Willy?"

"You didn't hear this from me, right?" Willy asked, his voice low.

"Scouts honour," Buffy promised, holding out her left hand in some sort of pose.

"Alright. Word is that a lot of demons are going missing. Friendly ones, you know? The kind that never bothered nobody. Frankie, one my regulars, said he saw a group of commando's, military types, roaming the streets at night, kidnapping them. Rumours are that these military folks are experimenting on them."

A glance at Buffy showed that this was a serious situation. "How long has this been going on?" Buffy asked, the joking facade she'd entered the pub with gone.

"Couple months now I heard," Willy told her.

"And you're sure of this?" Buffy asked.

"'Course," Willy told them sincerely. "Frankie wouldn't lie about these things. Said they were shooting at demons with some electric stuns guns and the like. Scary stuff if you ask me."

"Anything else?" Harry asked.

Willy took one look at him and answered without hesitation, "That's it, kid, I swear." He glanced around his near empty bar. "Don't come in here and I promise to let you know if I found out more." The pleading, desperate look in his eyes was enough that Harry knew they'd overstayed their welcome. Their presence was only torturing the weasel-like man.

"Good to know," Harry told him and stood up. He looked at Buffy and glanced at the door. She got the message and they left.

**OoOoOoOoO**

Willy slumped down behind the bar as the wooden door closed. He hated this town sometimes. Sure, there were always demons looking for something to drink and he made enough money, but when the 'heroes' needed something and came for him, well, he could do without that.

The Slayer and her friends usually scared the bejeezus out of him, but that new kid, he seriously hoped he never meet him again. Though a normal human himself, he recognised power. He had to really; he would have died years ago if he didn't know which demons he _needed_ to cooperate with. That kid, the one he never got the name of, scared him more than even the Slayer did. The look in his eyes _screamed_ danger and Hell help whoever angered him.

He'd keep his promise to the Slayer, if only to make sure he never saw that other kid again.

**OoOoOoOoO**

"What do you think about this military thing?" Harry asked Buffy as they walked back to her student dorm.

"Not a clue," Buffy answered honestly. "I've seen them during my patrols, but Willy's usually good with passing on problems when he's threatened enough." She tilted her head and looked at him. "Have you seen anything odd?"

Harry laughed slightly, "Everything I've seen here has been odd, but no, I've seen nothing but vampires."

"You ever have any situations with military types?" Buffy asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, well, there was that incident with the Swiss Guard about 6 months ago, but that doesn't really count."

"Um, what?" Buffy asked looking bewildered.

"Escaping the Vatican City is as difficult as you'd think it would be," Harry told her.

Buffy was still looking at him oddly, but seeing that he wasn't going to share anymore, she shrugged to herself. "So, was seeing your first demon as exciting as you hoped?" Buffy asked.

Harry considered his answer. "It was interesting," he admitted slowly.

"But?" Buffy prodded.

"It was a bit like going to the zoo?" Harry half asked, half stated.

Buffy laughed. "A zoo?" she asked.

Harry nodded slightly, "Sure, demons are angry and vicious and want to kill you, right?" he asked.

"Usually," Buffy agreed, still smiling.

"They were sitting in a bar drinking pints," Harry told her, shaking his head. "They might as well be behind glass displays."

Buffy laughed again, louder than before. "Glass displays? Tell them that and you might have a vicious demon on your hands. It would be too bad if I had to save you."

Harry grinned at the tiny Slayer. "Still sore about me saving you?" he asked. "We still need to have our duel."

"Only if you don't use your fancy stick," Buffy reminded him.

Harry just grinned at her.

"Ewww," she muttered. "Why are you such a pervert?" Despite her words, she blushed slightly. "Your British, you're supposed to be all... all _proper_ and drink tea and..."

"Couldn't think of a third?" Harry asked with mock casualness.

Buffy just scowled at him.

Harry laughed, "I'm sure it'll come to you eventually." Buffy pouted cutely and Harry really couldn't help but laugh again.

**OoOoOoOoO**

_(1 hour before)_

Tara Maclay left Harry's... apartment shortly before it got dark. Despite the sun being up she walked back to her dorm room quickly. She had lived in Sunnydale for a little over a year and she knew just how dangerous the streets could be by yourself. Given that a lot of mundane things scared her, walking the streets when dusk near terrified her.

She had no idea that Harry had silently followed her home, making sure she reached her destination safely.

It was only after she returned to her single roomed dorm that she allowed herself to think and reflect on the last two days of her life. All her life, she had read books and watched movies where one person could arrive in another's life and completely turn things around. She had thought her '_moment' _was when her mother died two years ago and her world came crashing down around her.

Her family life had been less than ordeal, but at least she'd had her mother to stand by her, to teach her magic and an appreciation for the world. They were both Wiccans and proud of it.

And then her mother was gone, leaving her with her father and her brother.

It could have been worse she reflected with a frown. The abuse had been sparse, not enough to really hurt her, although she was sure her father and brother came close at times. It was more to keep her cowed and subdued. From her father's perspective, it worked just as he wanted. The stutter she had had for as long as she could remember got worse to the point that even speaking began to frighten her. People would hear her stutter and laugh.

After a few months of this she tried to just bottle up all her of fear and just live. She began staying out late at nights for the first time in her life, tried alcohol and well, doing what most people would just consider _'living'_. She had dated two girls during that period, but they had gotten bored of her _'innocent and naive ways' _soon enough.

The stutter had come back, irrepressible now, and she returned to her old way of life, listening to her _family_ complain about her magic, subtly making references to the fact that her demon side, a trait passed on to the females in the family, would emerge in a few years.

When the time to leave for University came she took it and ran, moving to California. She had heard rumours that California had a strong Wicca following and other than her mother, she had rarely met another witch.

It hadn't been the escape she had been hoping for. She found herself unable to make friends, her stutter driving people away before anything could develop. It had taken her a while but she eventually joined the U.C Sunnydale Wiccans, believing them to be _actual _witches. It quickly became apparent that they weren't, but despite this she stayed as part of the group, just to say that she belonged to some place.

Her life continued in a straight forward pattern of going to class, learning magic and joining in the events that her Wiccan's group organised.

Until she met Harry.

It had been a good day that afternoon. The weather was good and the temperature wasn't too hot. She'd been sitting by herself, idly reading through one of her textbooks when she sensed something odd nearby. Though she had a wide range of skills regarding magic, the thing she was best at, the thing her mother told her was a special and unique skill, was reading the aura's of people. She had an innate ability to see and _know_ if something was wrong with someone. It also gave her the slightest ability to detect lies; their aura's giving them away, even when their faces didn't.

She had looked up from her book and noticed the boy with the strange aura walking across the quad. She watched him for a minute, trying to decipher _what_ was wrong with him. All that she _knew_ was that it was magical in nature. There appeared to be two of him, an ethereal version of himself walking only a pace in front of him. The boy's aura looked... cracked, split, broken. Whatever he was, or whatever had happened to him was abnormal. It was wrong and the magic was dangerous.

He had then turned and looked her straight in the eye. Frightened that she had been caught snooping, she ducked her head, hoping that his sudden look towards her had nothing to do with _her_. In retrospect, she likely looked very guilty. She waited a minute and then looked up again and saw the boy with the odd aura walking directly towards her. She'd panicked, ducking her head again. She tried to think of a way to leave her bench and hope he wouldn't follow her again. She quickly glanced from left to right, hoping she could make a run for it. Upon realising that she was in the middle of a large open space, she knew she had nowhere to go.

As a last resort she tried chanting a spell, any spell, which would help her. Her stutter was too bad and she couldn't complete it.

"You mind if I sit down?" he asked kindly as he stopped by her.

She just managed to look at him and stuttered out a reply. She was amazed she was able to even get one word out.

The boy quickly caught on to the fact that she was terrified and tried to calm her, speaking softly and gently to her. It hadn't done anything to appease her. Her experience with boy's, and men in general was horrible. It had been no surprise to her when she'd realised she was a lesbian. She trusted women, not men. Men were dangerous and led to trouble.

He had asked why she had been watching him and she'd answered honestly, hoping he would accept her answer and just leave. To her surprise she found herself asking the boy, Harry, why his aura was wrong. He solemnly explained that it was something that had happened a while ago and that he was trying to reverse. Someone must have cursed him. He wouldn't talk about what it did.

It was then he mentioned that he could see aura's as well, the aura of a person's being. That was when her fear spiked. She'd felt dizzy and only barely stopped herself from fainting. Had he seen her aura? Had he noticed the demon presence inside of her? Would he think she was dangerous and kill her? Stuttering worse than she had in years, she'd asked him what he'd seen in her. She held her breath as he scanned her again.

Through his sunglasses she had noticed his right eye glow. The display of such magic would have usually intrigued her, but for the moment, she was simply too afraid. Then, Harry spoke the words that would begin to change her. He told her, after describing her powers _exactly_ as she felt they were, that there was nothing else there. Just magic. It had been said in such a way that she _knew_ that he wasn't lying.

There was no demon in her.

She wasn't part demon.

She _wouldn't_ turn evil on her next birthday.

She had asked Harry again, scarcely believing it to be true.

He had repeated that there was nothing beyond her magic and she had never felt so relieved in her life. Despite everything her father had told her since she was a young girl, she believed that this stranger was telling the truth. She had then thanked him without stuttering once.

They'd then begun talking about magic. He mentioned having bought several books, expensive, dangerous, complicated books. He'd mentioned that he didn't understand them, that his magic knowledge was different from anything in them. Happy, almost ecstatic, to be talking about _real _magic with someone for the first time since her mother had passed, she recommended some good starting books and then he'd offered her something really quiet surprising.

Tutoring.

She hadn't really known what to think. She had never tutored anyone in magic before. Her mother had tutored her. Could she tutor someone else? Being able to pass on that knowledge to someone else felt like a really good idea and while she tried to deny it, the offer of money for the tutoring would really help her. Money was tight, her only source of it being what her mother had left her. She hadn't been able to buy any magic books for a while, although Mr. Bogarty did let her borrow some. He was a nice man; one of the exceptions as Harry appeared to be.

She had accepted, only after Harry had made sure _she_ wanted to do this and not just because he'd asked, or, that was her interpretation of the look he'd given her. She'd taken a deep breath and spoken six words without the hint of a stutter. Harry had grinned at her when she'd said that and she somehow felt he was proud of her for that accomplishment. No matter, _she _was proud of herself.

It wasn't until after she got home that she realised that she'd made a friend. Hopefully it would last.

Still on her high from that afternoon, she'd made a phone call home for the first time in over a month. Her father had been quite shocked to hear from her, if only for a moment. It hadn't taken long before he mentioned that she should be home with _them_ in order for them to help her when her demon side emerged.

Tara had taken a deep breath, steadying her nerves and then, quite simply, asked if she being a demon was true. There had been a short moment of silence before he told her that yes, it was true. She'd asked again, citing that a magic reader had told her explicitly that there was _no _trace of demon in her. Again, he told her she _was _part demon, but this time she heard fear in his voice. That was the moment she knew that Harry had been honest with her. Her father, a very confident man, only got nervous when he was caught in a lie.

She'd then hung up the phone without another word, an almost giddy smile on her lips. The smile on her face didn't dim for the rest of the night as she spent her time going over her mother's old magic books, creating a lesson plan to teach Harry.

For the first time in quite a while, she found herself really looking forward to the next day.

**OoOoOoOoO**

She'd dressed in her finest clothes before going to Harry's, not knowing who else, if anyone, would be there. He hadn't mentioned if he lived alone or not, but she knew the address of where he stayed and all those apartments had two bedrooms. She had taken three of her mother's books, knowing that if Harry knew _some_ magic already, they might be able to skip some things or work quickly through others.

At 6pm she'd knocked on the door. After only a couple of seconds she felt some magic wash over her, startling her slightly. What had it done? Had it just been an identifying spell? She felt her nerves return slightly, really not knowing what to expect. She began doubting herself. What if Harry wasn't as kind as he was yesterday? What if she'd been lured here?

Harry had answered the door before she could get too scared and run. She'd smiled, hoping it didn't look strained. Harry had kindly welcomed her in, and then she noticed his apartment.

If one could call it an apartment.

It looked like a castle tower. The room was large, far larger than it _possibly _could have been. There were no corners on the walls, just one big round room. She'd stepped in, her awe over clouding her fear. A bit further into the room she could she a fireplace burning brightly on a far area of the circular wall. To her right was a staircase that went up to another level. Both of those things were also impossible for the home he lived in. She'd stuttered out a word, looking for some sort of answer to what this place was. Had she stepped through a portal? Was she even still in Sunnydale?

He'd casually said he was bored before explaining just what spells he'd used to create this place. Space expansion charms? Copious transfiguration and inanimate _conjuration?_ A lot of that was well beyond _anything_ she could do. She knew a lot of rituals, gods to call upon, simple potions, and several spell like spells. If he could do this, why did he need her?

The fear came back in droves. Had this really been a ploy to trick her into coming here? What was he going to do to her. The urge to run came back, but again, knew she wouldn't be able to get away. Fearful for her life she'd asked why he wanted her here.

He had quickly explained, "This is _my_ magic. The type you can use, the theory and history is completely different to anything I've ever heard. I don't even _know_ what your type of magic can do."

He'd mentioned that to her yesterday but at the time she hadn't thought to ask more about it. Asking now, Harry explained about how he used a magic wand. She'd smiled slightly at that. It seemed silly to her that someone had to use a wand to do magic, just like in the children's stories she'd read when she was young.

He'd explained a bit more about his magic and how it was in his blood, not drawn from the earth like hers was. That brought all sorts of interesting questions to mind. Whereas she harvested magic, commanding it, asking for its guidance, praying to the gods, he _was _magic.

After a few minutes, she finally saw him use some of his magic, taping each of her books with his wand and _copying_ them. He'd done it without words, without _effort_ and it amazed her. She'd examined the books and couldn't tell them apart anymore. Thankfully, she knew which ones were the originals and she made sure they weren't confused.

Then came her lesson. She started explaining some concepts of magic, the dangers, the possibilities it could achieve and then the practices. He'd sat patiently and listened intently, taking notes the entire time in a leather bound notebook. Having seen several of them on the table near the fireplace, she knew he had a lot of them.

After thirty minutes of purely theoretical talk she began to teach him mediation, a simple practice that anyone trying to use magic had to learn. Apparently that was true for his magic as well, as he'd been able to slip into a meditative stance with ease. After making sure he had that down she began talking again, but this time he began asking questions. They came from someone that had clear knowledge of magic, even though he'd didn't seem to know the finer details of it. He'd explained this by comparing the practices in this world and the one he'd come from.

After this she decided that she wouldn't be surprised by anything he ever told her again. Her mother had told her all about alternate universes and parallel dimensions before, but meeting someone from another one was an entirely different thing.

The lesson plan had sort of dissolved after that, her curiosity overwhelming her. She found herself looking for information on _his _world and _his _magic. She marvelled at the thought of seeing some of the creatures he had seen in his world. What would it be like to see a real Unicorn living in the wild? To see a dragon breathe fire and stretch it's wings. "I'd love to be able to see it," she told him. He'd given her an odd, somewhat calculating look then that he said he'd explain next time she came round to tutor him. She wondered if he meant he'd show her pictures.

In the end, the lesson had lasted quite a bit longer than she thought it would and she was looking forward to the next one. She'd forgotten how exciting talking about magic was with someone and while she hoped he would get back to his dimension, she really hoped it wouldn't be too soon.

**OoOoOoOoO**


End file.
